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LIFE AND LETTERS OF CHARLES RUSSELL 
LOWELL. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, I2.00, net. 
Postage extra. 

EMERSON IN CONCORD. With new Portrait. 
Crown 8vo, ^1.75. 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 

Boston and New York 



LIFE AND LETTERS OF 
CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 



LIFE AND LETTERS 

OF 

CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 

CAPTAIN SIXTH UNITED STATES CAVALRY 

COLONEL SECOND MASSACHUSETTS CAVALRY 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL UNITED STATES VOLUNTEERS 

BY 

EDWARD W. EMERSON 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

1907 



lIsaRAaVofCONGRESSJ 
\ Two Cooies Bacelved |- ; 

\ Afh la mi 




.1 



COPYRIGHT 1907 BY CARLOTTA RUSSELL LOWELL 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



Published April, 11)07 



PREFACE 

JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL ended 
her noble life here not two years ago. It was 
her wish that I should print this sketch, writ- 
ten many years since, of her husband, General 
Charles Russell Lowell. She allowed me and 
other friends to overrule her opinion that his 
letters would not be of interest to the present 
generation, and gave me leave to publish the 
extracts from them here given. This is done in 
the firm belief that in them shine out the quali- 
ties that will always move men and women, 
whether young or old. Charles Lowell, as son, 
friend, husband, patriot, showed in his letters 
the double life of action and thought — a 
higher and fairer background at times appears. 
The gifts and powers which made him a 
brilliantly effective soldier would never have 
been turned into war's negative and destructive 
channels, had not the life and ideals of his 
Country been in peril. He fought because the 
war was of a character which left no choice to a 
man of his condition. The readers of these let- 



vi PREFACE 

ters will see how far removed from the spirit of 
mere adventure or glory-seeking of aggressive 
and political wars was that of the young men 
who sought to save the Republic, and the free 
institutions it stood for, from wreck. The elder 
Lowell thus told of the call as it came in those 
days to the best young men in the North : — 

•* Some day the soft Ideal that we wooed 
Confronts us fiercely, foe-beset, pursued. 
And cries reproachful, * Was it then my praise 
And not myself was loved ? Prove now thy truth, 
I claim of thee the promise of thy youth ; 
Give me thy life, or cower in empty phrase ; 
The victim of thy genius, not its mate.' " 

From the camp and the battlefield Charles 
Lowell was looking into the quiet beyond the 
smoke, where he hoped, as a citizen, to work at 
the harder tasks of helping to solve the prob- 
lems that we face to-day. His especial wish 
was to raise the standard of life and thought of 
the workingmen of America. 

His personal friend. Major Henry Lee Hig- 
ginson, seldom speaks to Harvard students 
without trying to pass on to them something 
of the inspiration Lowell was to him. Approv- 
ing the publication of these letters, of which 
many were written to him, he says, — 



CONTENTS 

Life .1 

Letters 

L Scholar and Workman ... 73 

IL Sickness and Two Years' Wandering . 97 

in. Railroad and Iron-Works . . 167 

IV. The School of the Soldier . . • 199 

V. Guarding the Border. Marriage . 227 

VI. The Greater Service . . . • 3^9 

Notes on the Life ..... 367 

Notes to the Letters . , . . -379 

Index ....... 485 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell . Frontispiece 

From a photograph taken in I 863 

Charles Russell Lowell, at the age of nineteen . 74 / 

From his Class picture in 1854 

A Morning Reconnoissance in the Shenandoah 

Valley ...... 200 

From- a painting 

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell and Miss Jose- 
phine Shaw ..... 228 

From a photograph taken in 1863 

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell . . . 320 -^ 

From a photograph taken /« 1863 

Map showing Battlefields referred to in Colonel 

Lowell's Letters . . . . . 368 ^ 



We sit here in the Promised Land 

That flows with Freedom's honey and milk; 

But 't was they won it, sword in hand. 

Making the nettle danger soft for us as silk. 

We welcome back our bravest and our best; — 
Ah, me! not all ! some come not with the rest. 

Who went forth brave and bright as any here ! 

In these brave ranks I only see the gaps. 
Thinking of dear ones whom the dumb turf wraps. 
Dark to the triumph which they died to gain: 

I with uncovered head 

Salute the sacred dead. 
Who went, and who return not. — Say not so ! 
'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay. 
But the high faith that failed not by the way; 
Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave; 
No ban of endless night exiles the brave; 

And to the saner mind 
We rather seem the dead that stayed behind. 
Blow, trumpets, all your exultations blow ! 
For never shall their aureoled presence lack; 
I see them muster in a gleaming row. 
With ever-youthful brows that nobler show; 
We find in our dull road their shining track; 

Part of our life's unalterable good. 
Of all our saintlier aspiration; 

They come transfigured back. 
Secure from change in their high-hearted ways. 
Beautiful evermore, and with the rays 
Of morn on their white Shields of Expectation ! 

Commemoration Ode, Lowell. 



Know thou, mighty of men, that the Norns shall order all. 
And yet without thine helping shall no whit of their will befall; 
Be wise! 'tis a marvel of words, and a mock for the fool and 

the blind; 
But I saw it writ in the heavens, and its fashioning there did 

I find: 
And the night of the Norns and their slumber, and the tide 

when the world runs back. 
And the way of the Sun is tangled, it is wrought of the 

dastard's lack. 
But the day when the fair earth blossoms and the sun is bright 

above. 
Of the daring deeds is it fashioned and the eager hearts of love. 

Sigurd the Vohung. 



LIFE 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 

THE Grecian myth of unknown antiquity 
told of the hero Meleager — I give the 
version of an EngHsh poet — how at his birth 

** Came in 
Three weaving women and span each a thread. 
Saying * This for Strength,' and * That for luck,' and one 
Saying ' Till the brand upon the hearth burn down 
So long shall this man see good days and live.' " 

The queen, his mother, leaped from the bed, 
beat and blew out the fire, and hid the brand 
away, fearing for her babe, little thinking who 
should light it later : — 

"But those grey women with bound hair. 
Who fright the Gods, frighted not him — he laughed." 

The Hke was strangely true of the man 
of brief but crowded life — once reprieved 
too from death — of whom this volume tells. 
Healthy and virile, he believed that a man held 
the essence of his fate in his own hand, and, 
tingling with purpose and power, of Fate he felt 
no fear. But that other deity. Fortune, of whom 



4 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Dante tells, among the lovely primal creatures 
gliding happy on her wheel or ball, unconscious 
of what its turn means to men of bliss or 
misery, — of her, because of her lavish gifts to 
him, — unearned, he thought, — he confessed his 
fear ; and surely the conditions of his birth, the 
place, the heredity, the coming of age in time 
to do a man's work in that great struggle for 
Freedom and country, seem a free grace of 
Fortune. 

Charles Russell Lowell, scholar, mechanic, 
railroad treasurer, iron-master, cavalry com- 
mander, was born in Boston, January 2, 1835, 
the son of Charles Russell Lowell and Anna 
(Jackson) Lowell. 

Of the strands coming out of the Past to each 
human being, those that met and twined in his 
thread of life were strong and fine, among them 
one of rich dye.' 

Traditions of hardihood, of high thought, of 
self-help were there, and especially the influence 
of a noble mother, and these were more than 
the education of the schools and the college, 
where, among the youngest, he led his classes 
by quality of mind and the power of concentra- 
tion on the work of the moment. But he was no 
pale student : ruddy and eager this same force 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 5 

carried his small and sturdy body to victory in 
the games of his age.' 

His uncle, the poet, writing in 1871 of the 
keen joys of northern winter and the power of 
the snow to make boys of men, says : "Already 
as I write it is twenty odd years ago ; the balls 
fly thick and fast. The uncle defends the waist- 
high ramparts against a storm of nephews, his 
breast plastered with decorations, like another 
Radetsky's. How well I recall the indomitable 
good humour under fire of him who fell in the 
front at Ball's Bluff, the silent pertinacity of 
the gentle scholar who got his last hurt at Fair 
Oaks, the ardor in the charge of the gallant 
gentleman who, with the death-wound in his 
side, headed his brigade at Cedar Creek." ^ 

The circumstances of his family and the sur- 
roundings were such that he had the fortune 
to take from Poverty and from Riches their 
best gifts. 

He was prepared for Harvard College at 
both the Latin and the English High Schools 
in Boston. The following picture of the boy 
in college has been given me in a letter by Mr. 
Horace H. Furness of Philadelphia, from which 
I venture to quote : — 

" Charlie Lowell was the youngest member 



6 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

of our Class, I think, and during the First Term, 
Freshman, wore a roundabout jacket. . . . Of 
all the rest of us he won his way into my best 
graces by his vivacity, his thoroughly boyish 
open-heartedness, his eagerness for fun and frolic, 
and his indifference to the high rank which at 
once he attained by easy strides and maintained. 

" What a bright image arises in my memory 
of his boyish beauty, his rosy-tinted complex- 
ion, his wavy hair, his bright eyes that could 
flash with merriment or glow with intense 
conviction ! 

"In all my intercourse with him I was con- 
tinually struck with his quick perception of 
the refined boundaries of what was morally 
right or wrong, — it seemed to be instinctive. 
I recall an instance — very insignificant and 
hardly rising to a moral height, but inef- 
faceable in my memory — that once befell 
when we were initiating a member of the Hasty 
Pudding Club. The ceremonies took place in 
the upper room of ' Massachusetts,' and some 
Freshmen, rooming on the second floor, con- 
ceived the idea that we were Sophomores 'haz- 
ing' some one of their class, whom it behooved 
them to rescue, or assist by keeping their room- 
door open, — a fatal hindrance to our secrecy. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 7 

Thereupon four or five of us rushed into the 
Freshmen's room, closed the door, and planted 
our backs against it. Some of us were inclined, 
or began, to treat the poor Freshmen roughly. 
* Good heavens, fellows,' cried Lowell, ^ don't 
do that ! Don't you know we 're invading their 
room ? ' Thus it always was. He instantly 
recognized the fact that in a private room pas- 
sive obstruction on our part was alone justi- 
fiable. . . . 

" I doubt that any first scholar ever held that 
position with more unwavering acquiescence on 
the part of his classmates in his right to it than 
Lowell." 

In college his reading was wide, and the best ; 
but more, he laid out the plan of his life on 
large lines, namely, to bring his powers and 
training to the service of his generation in a 
working life with those who had had less op- 
portunities. 

At Commencement, the fresh and boyish- 
looking senior, of nineteen years, valedictorian 
by right of scholarship, came forward in his 
academic gown on the college rostrum, and 
steadily looking the grave dignitaries of the 
University and the Commonwealth in the face, 
spoke to them on " The Reverence due from 



8 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Old Men to Young." It was no piece of bra- 
vado. How much the boy felt what he said in 
defense of youthful ideals may be known from 
this : that within a year, when, as a result of 
weak-kneed desire to preserve at any price 
peaceful commercial relations with the imperi- 
ous Cotton States, a poor black man who had 
almost reached the sure freedom in Canada 
which the North Star held from afar to the sad 
eyes of the slave, was held for trial in Boston, 
her gray heads weakly and sadly assenting, 
the young Lowell with another spirited boy 
vainly tried to get speech with the United 
States judge who was to give the doom, to 
plead with him against the shame. And when 
the man, guarded by soldiers, reinforced by 
Boston merchants, against rescue, was led down 
State Street to the vessel which carried him 
back to bondage, these boys looked on with 
burning cheeks, and one said, " Charley, it will 
come to us to set this right." ' He spoke 
truly. 

The boy might well think that the men of 
the ruling generation had much to learn. So 
feeling, he presented his case bravely and ear- 
nestly. The best passages of this remarkable 
speech are here produced for their merit, and to 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 9 

show that, with his hand on the latch of the 
gate leading right to the work-a-day world of 
New England, then absorbed in material pros- 
perity, he had looked before he leaped into the 
stream and considered the danger. 

" No nation, of course, can view its young 
men with indifference : the nurse of Crishna, 
when she looked, in the infant's mouth beheld 
whole kingdoms ; so each nation sees in its 
young men the means of fulfilling its wishes. 
Once, when these wishes were gratified less by 
the head and more by the hands, when Courage 
and Strength were virtues . . . some of the 
favorite gods possessing in fact no others, youth 
could not but receive some little share of rever- 
ence. Youth too charmed by its beauty, and 
men imagined rightly that those were most like 
the gods who longest kept their young-man- 
hood. But noWy when the work of the world is 
done more by brains than by muscles, since it 
is hard to prove that the brains of young men 
are better, since too the beautiful is now crowded 
out by the useful, men seem to make God's 
earth a Mahomet's heaven where sons may be 
born and grow up in an hour. They seem to 
forget that in Nature ^ the shortest way to an 
end is one which lies through all the means.' 



10 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

"Young men have always been sought . . . 
and never more than at present — but for what 
are they sought ? Because they are a power on 
the earth, because they bring zeal and vigor 
which the world is eager to use. But that they feel 
keenly the pleasure of labor is no proof that 
labor is their highest function — is no proof 
that their elders are right in wishing to turn 
the fresh current of youth into canals to move 
mill-wheels. We hear nowadays much whole- 
some truth about the dignity of labor. 

"... But when a young man is burning to 
do the world great service it is falsehood to tell 
him that faithful labor is the best gift the world 
expects of him. If young men bring nothing 
but their strength and their spirit, the world 
may well spare them. But they do bring it 
something better : they bring it their fresher 
and purer ideals. 

" While mankind is constantly rising to higher 
ideals, there is always danger that the individual 
may sink to lower ones. Labor has been blessed 
as the Lethe of the past and the present ; it 
may well be cursed as the Lethe of the highest 
future. Apart from the fact that in changing 
wishes to wills and wills to deeds much is always 
lost that is never missed, . . . gratified vanity 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL ii 

may become a syren to lure man to destruction. 
The ideal power may stoop to form pictures 
of worldly success. Or he may flatter himself 
that he is still true to his ideal, when to every 
one else it is clear that his nature is subdued to 
that it works in, like the dyer's hand. 

" Therefore the old men, the men of the last 
generation, cannot teach us of the present what 
should be, for we know as well as they, or 
better; they should not tell us what can be, 
for the world always advances by impossibilities 
achieved, and if life has taught them what can- 
not be, such knowledge in the world's march is 
only impedimenta. In short, though men are 
often too old to learn, they are often too young 
to be taught. . . . 

" * Nature, in making young men the build- 
ers of castles in the air, meant them also to be 
the architects and master-builders in the great 
edifice which the world is slowly rearing : Out 
of the thousand fragile chateaux in Spain rises 
this one Gibraltar.' 

" If beauty, then, which has been called the 
promise of function, causes youth to be loved^ 
the function which already brings the world its 
life and its growth should cause it to be rev- 
erenced. A nation that feels this reverence has 



12 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

its Golden Age before it. It cannot be wholly 
undone by unprincipled governments or evil 
institutions. Where this is not felt, though the 
course may seem rapid and prosperous, a swift 
undercurrent is sweeping it surely to destruc- 
tion. . . . Never before in any country was 
action so much valued. . . . 

"Far be it from me to say aught against 
action: as Bacon has finely said, * In the theatre 
of the world God and his angels only have a 
right to be spectators.' Still, mere action is no 
proof of progress; in over-valuing its amount, 
we necessarily under-value its direction : we 
make it our boast how much we do, and thus 
grow blind to what we do ; so that we fool- 
ishly wish to convert into tools those whom 
we should rejoice to follow as guides. Action, 
then, is the Minotaur which claims and de- 
vours our youths : Athens bewailed the seven 
who yearly left her shore; with us scarce 
seven remain, and we urge the victims to their 
fate. 

"Apollonius of Tyana tells us in his Travels 
that he saw *a youth, one of the blackest of the 
Indians, who had between his eyebrows a shin- 
ing moon. Another youth named Memnon, 
the pupil of Herodes the Sophist, had this 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 13 

moon when he was young ; but as he approached 
to man's estate, its Hght grew fainter and fainter 
and finally vanished.' The world should see 
with reverence on each youth's brow, as a shin- 
ing moon, his fresh ideal. It should remember 
that he is already in the hands of a sophist 
more dangerous than Herodes, for that sophist 
is himself. It should watch lest, from too early 
or exclusive action, the moon on his brow, 
growing fainter and fainter, should finally van- 
ish, and sadder than all, should leave in vanish- 
ing no sense of loss." 

From the gowned eminence of an academic 
rostrum at Commencement he stepped next 
day into the place of boy in a commercial count- 
ing-room in Boston, to gain some knowledge 
of bookkeeping and business methods, where, 
in the six months of his stay, according to the 
head of the house, his quick intelligence " pen- 
etrated the mysteries rapidly." The next spring 
found him a common workman in the Ames 
Company's mill at Chicopee, cleaning old chains 
or filing iron, but studying all that went on 
around him — the processes and details of iron 
working — with keen interest; also the kick of 
the gufiy the reaction of the business on the 
human being, workman, boss, or member of 



14 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

managing corporation, was no less a matter of 
thought for him. 

He met the workmen simply and bravely 
and made himself acquainted, as far as he could, 
with this, to him, new type. He interested 
himself in them, neither sentimentally nor yet 
patronizingly, but had respect for them.' Of 
course in his life of thought when evenings and 
Sundays came he was much alone. 

He wrote to his mother : — 

" My life here is just exactly what we all 
expected ; neither better nor worse, and I go 
on my way rejoicing." 

" Chicopee, it is true, is not a distant Grecian 
sky, but Sons of Agamemnon may be nursed 
here." 

" A silent man can ask himself enough ques- 
tions in two hours to keep him thinking for a 
month and to make him wiser for a lifetime." 

In the autumn he was offered a promising 
and responsible position in the Rolling Mills 
at Trenton (N. J.) and straightway went there 
and plunged into iron manufacture with a zeal 
and intelligence which at once won high praise 
from his employers ; but a sudden failure of 
his forces, explained soon by serious hemor- 
rhage from the lungs, forced on him the know- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 15 

ledge that, if he would live, he must, for a time, 
leave his chosen path. A two years' banish- 
ment in the South of this country and of 
Europe, involving delay and disappointment, 
and worse, the incurring obligations to others, 
was his sentence. 

In bodily health mental health is a prime 
factor ; and of this last the measure has been 
said to be " the disposition to find good in 
all things." Hence Lowell was destined to 
recover. He writes to his anxious mother, " As 
to fear about myself, why, as Emerson some- 
where says, ' I sail with God the seas ! ' My 
only fear now is that which led the tyrant of 
Samos to throw his ring into the sea. I am 
frightened and oppressed by the terrible good 
fortune which always has attended me, by the 
kindness which I have done nothing to earn 
and which I can never repay. For Heaven's 
sake don't feel anxious about my enjoying my- 
self. I am in the agony of enjoyment all the 
time now." 

Having gone abroad to regain his strength, 
he turned the force and originality of his mind 
to that object; neither drifted nor went by con- 
ventional ways. Up to this time as unused to 
riding as most New Englanders of his day, he 



i6 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

forthwith bought horses and hardened himself 
to the saddle on mountain roads in Spain, Italy, 
Germany and Algiers, making a study of the 
horse and his needs and possibilities, thus learn- 
ing to get the most out of him in companionship 
and in cheerful work ; remembering also what 
was due from the man to his dumb friend. 
Frank, fearless, catholic in temperament, he 
made friends with English, French, or Italians, 
and gained knowledge of language and men. 

Although then with no dream of a military 
career, it appears as if, even against his theories, 
the Austrian and French soldiers and their ma- 
noeuvres had a fascination for him, and for ex- 
ercise he learned something of the use of the 
sword. 

The strife for freedom then beginning in Kan- 
sas began to draw him, and, with the college 
friend who had blushed with him at the surren- 
der of Anthony Burns, he considered the plan 
of going thither on his return, but only for a 
time, for he had no thought then of a war to 
come. Removal to a Virginia farm was some- 
times discussed in his letters home, but only 
because of his weak lungs and those of some 
members of his family. Yet, read in the light 
of what came after, some passages in his letters 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 17 

about a life in Virginia for the next few years, 
and a horse's back being his destined vehicle, 
sound strangely prophetic. Determined to be of 
use when he did come home, he bravely stayed 
away, in spite of limited means, drawing stoutly 
on his future. 

" It seems almost a tempting of Providence 
for me to receive so much who have never given 
anything, but I live in the future, and if ever a 
fellow had awful motives to work, /shall when 
I return — to work for others, I mean." 

So he had courage to stay and play the game 
out, and thus returned sound, and at once was 
offered by an older business man who had 
divined his power, and been captivated by his 
traits, the place of local treasurer on a rising 
Western railroad.' He at once accepted, put 
his whole power into this new work, which soon 
began to show the effects. The present strong 
and successful head of a great Western road 
was initiated into work and inspired by Lowell. 

"We made long days in the office in Lowell's 
day," he told me, when I came on to the road ; 
" often and often went down after supper and 
worked until eleven o'clock. He made the road 
a labor of love." 

His home and friends were in the East, the 



1^ LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

climate was trying, and to a scholar and man of 
culture the river town in its early days had but 
barren companionship to offer, and a great temp- 
tation was suddenly set before him, a flattering 
offer of a position of trust insuring a speedy 
fortune in the East Indies, This brilliant offer 
was, after a day's consideration, simply put aside. 
Lowell knew that his mother, to whom he was 
most loyal, would hate to have him go, and he 
knew also that strong manhood was worth more 
than easy wealth. His first duty, he said, was 
to earn an independence for himself and his • 
family ; this he would hope to do in ten or fifteen 
years in the West. "This satisfied, my one am- 
bition is to recover and keep up my power of 
work; to be able to toil terribly^ as Mr. Emerson 
says of Sir Walter Raleigh ; for this I am train- 
ing. ... I am sure I shall be happier with head 
and hand in good working order than with un- 
limited means of enjoyment in any other sort." 

When, on his first return from Europe, it was 
a question into what manner of life he should 
go, and a relative sent word that he must not be 
allowed to let himself go too cheap, Lowell re- 
marked : " Nothing can repay a man for what he 
has done well, — except the doing of it." 

But soon came a call that drew him ; iron- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 19 

works in the mountains of Maryland, with every 
apparent natural advantage, steadily unprosper- 
ous, and needing a good manager. Iron was his 
first love, and he obeyed her call. When he left 
the railroad, after three years of service there, 
Mr. John M. Forbes, who was always one of 
the pillars of the Chicago, Burlington, andQuincy 
system, and later its president, said that he was 
fit to be at the head of any railroad in the West 
that needed a manager. "He left his mark in- 
delibly wherever he went," says a railroad man, 
now famous, who worked with him ; " the af- 
fection with which he is remembered by the 
many, especially working-men, with whom he 
was brought in contact in his business, is re- 
markable." 

Lowell, in good sooth magnetic, heard the 
cry of iron and went towards it, but hardly had 
he reached the Border State whence it seemed 
to come, when the stronger cry of a Country 
in danger, already smitten with iron balls from 
rebellious Carolina, came to him in the Mary- 
land mountains. He heard that the soldiers of 
Massachusetts had been fired on in Baltimore, 
instantly resigned his place and went to Wash- 
ington, arriving on foot after communication 
with the North had been cut off. Sure that the 



20 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

struggle was to be long, and, for the Country, a 
struggle for life, he saw in the army a command- 
ing call and also a career. In his letter to Senator 
Sumner, asking for his aid in getting a commis- 
sion in the regular artillery, he thus states his 
qualifications : — 

" I speak and write English, French, and 
Italian, and read German and Spanish ; knew 
once enough of mathematics to put me at the 
head of my class in Harvard, though now I 
may need a little rubbing up ; am a tolerable 
proficient with the small sword and single-stick ; 
and can ride a horse as far and bring him in as 
fresh as any other man. I am twenty-six years 
of age, and believe that I possess more or less 
of that moral courage about taking responsibil- 
ity which seems at present to be found only in 
Southern officers." 

While waiting the result of his application 
he served as he might, doing some scouting in 
Virginia ; and as agent for the State of Massa- 
chusetts, from which, he wrote, " I shall here- 
after always hail," he, in those days of dire 
confusion, used his organizing and executive 
powers in attending to the needs of her promptly 
arriving regiments. His common sense here 
showed him how much better it was, and kinder 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 21 

to the soldier, to teach him to make himself 
comfortable with what he had than to load his 
knapsack with unessential comforts sent by fond 
patriots at home. 

Secretary Cameron, when he saw him and 
heard what he had done, gave him a captaincy 
in the Third U. S. Cavalry, afterwards num- 
bered Sixth — a rare honor to a civilian. His 
colonel was William H. Emory, an officer of 
honorable record later, as commander of the 
Nineteenth Army Corps. Captain Lowell at 
once was sent to Pennsylvania and Ohio to 
recruit for the regiment, but when it was assem- 
bled his energy and ability showed so conspicu- 
ously that he was put in charge of a squadron 
(two companies). His regiment did active fight- 
ing in General McClellan's Peninsular Cam- 
paign. 

How well a young college-bred civilian, ut- 
terly unused to war, bore, by quick eye and 
mind and ready hand, but more than all by 
trained character, the responsibilities of the 
regular army in his very first ordeals, the fol- 
lowing passages from letters written by a West- 
ern boy, who was Lowell's orderly, may tell. 
It must be remembered that they were written 
perhaps four years after the events, around which 



22 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

an atmosphere had gathered, and if the boy saw 
a halo around his hero's head in those his first 
battles, there is small wonder. A private, too, 
knows nothing of general plan or orders. But 
in the main the story, which runs as naively as 
a fairy tale, is true : — 

" Our Regiment was advance-guard from York- 
town to Williamsburg;" at Fort Magruder, 
" Gen. Stoneman ordered us to draw in line 
and charge "... but " the Rebs' cavalry 
charged us first. We fell back, and as we were 
crossing a swamp the Rebs overtook us. Capt. 
Lowell had charge of Companies K and E. 
The Rebs charged Company E first, and the 
Captain joined that Company with our Company 
K, and fought them with the sabre for about lo 
minutes — then we retreated out of the swamp. 
Our Captain ordered six men to go out as skir- 
mishers from the right of the first platoon. I 
was one of the six that was sent out, and Ser- 
geant R. was ordered to take charge of us. The 
Sergt. had been drinking too freely, and he 
said that every one of us that did nt charge and 
kill 20 Rebsy he would put in the guard-house. 
Our Capt. told R. he could go to the rear and 
consider himself under arrest; then he said he 
would lead us himself When we got to the 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 23 

swamp, he ordered two of us to dismount and 
take saddles off the dead horses, while he and 
the other men skirmished. He laughed at us 
for dodging when we heard the shells whistle 
past: he said there was no use to dodge after 
we heard it whistle.' The day following we were 
drawn up behind the infantry, but did not get 
into an engagement. 

"After the battle [of Williamsburg] we were 
advance-guard. . . . Major WiUiams ordered 
our Capt. to go through a path that led through 
a pine forest, with his two companies, and see 
what he could see. When we had got pretty 
near through, the rear-guard came in and said 
that there was one hundred dismounted Rebs 
in our rear. Our Capt. said : * We are not 
going backwards, we are going forwards, — they 
will not trouble us.' We went a piece farther, 
when our advance-guard came in and said that 
there was a thousand in advance of us. Our 
Capt. said : ' We shall not turn back : I would 
rather fight one thousand fair than one hundred 
in ambush — we will go and see the thousand.' 

" When we came out of the woods, the Rebs 
were formed in line. One squadron of the Rebs 
fired on us and one squadron charged us with 
the sabre. Before they got down where we were 



24 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

our Capt. charged us on another squadron of 
theirs and charged five times until we made the 
big road. Our Capt. was the first man through 
the rebel lines every time we charged through 
them that day. While we were fighting our 
Capt. rode after a retreating Reb with a shot- 
gun on his shoulder : our Capt. rode to his 
side and ordered him to surrender, — the Reb 
threw the gun across his arm and fired it at our 
Capt. ; the shot lodged in his overcoat that he 
had on the saddle behind him. Our Capt. 
ordered Lt. W. to form the men in line in the 
road : he staid to see the men all off the field. 
Lt. X. was thrown from his horse in the first 
charge and when our Capt. was leaving the 
field to join his squadron he found him hid 
behind a stump, — he cried out ' Captain ! Cap- 
tain ! say Captain, have you seen my horse ^ ' 
Our Capt. said, * I am not hunting your horse 
— you had better come and get on behind me, 
for you cannot stay there long.' When they 
got to the squadron, the Rebs were making a 
charge on us, — then we could see our Regt. 
coming up behind us. Our Capt. charged the 
Rebs and we took a great many prisoners.' 

" If I remember right, our next place was 
up the Pamunkey River, — there we laid under 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 25 

cover of gunboats until near night, then we 
heard a good deal of firing and Gen. Stoneman 
ordered Capt. Lowell to go and see what it was. 
He took his squadron and went about three 
miles and a half when we met a Pennsylvania 
Colonel who said he had had a fight, and he 
told our Capt. he had better not go any farther 
or he would get captured. Our Capt. said we 
would go and see. We went on three miles 
farther and there had a skirmish. . . . We did 
not have much fighting to do till we got to the 
Chickahominy. Near there, when we were sup- 
porting a battery, the Rebel cavalry charged us. 
Our Capt. had one Company dismounted be- 
hind a stone wall, and they fired into the Rebs, 
and they fell back to a town (I forget the name 
of it) and there we had a fight with them again, 
and they crossed the Chickahominy. We could 
see the steeples and hear the church-bells ring 
in Richmond. It was Sunday. 

" In a few days after, we were sent to tear up 
a railroad; there was our squadron and two 
companies of infantry and two pieces of artillery. 
Lowell was in command. The rebel Infantry 
was guarding it and we could hear a train com- 
ing. We ran out a piece of artillery and fired into 
the engine and they let down the brakes and 



26 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

jumped out and ran. Then our infantry went to 
burn the cars and the rebel infantry drove them 
back. Then the Captain dismounted and gave 
me his horse to hold and he led the infantry him- 
self, — he said * Men, I know you are brave, fol- 
low me.' He drove the Rebs back, held them 
in check and burnt the cars and built a fire and 
heated the R. R. bars and bent them. Then 
we retreated back to Hdqrs." ' 

On the 27th of June, just at the beginning 
of McClellan's change of base. General Porter, 
to whose command the cavalry were now attached, 
believing that they were likely to be cut off, 
ordered General Stoneman to fall back on 
White House and re-join the army as best he 
could ; hence Lowell was not in the severe 
fighting of the " Seven Days." The cavalry 
rode down the Peninsula and re-joined the 
army at Harrison's Landing. During those 
days, Lowell's younger brother, James Jackson 
Lowell, a first lieutenant in the Twentieth Mas- 
sachusetts Infantry, refined and scholarly, but 
utterly brave, was shot at the battle of Glendale, 
June 30, and died in the enemy's hands, a few 
days later. 

From Charles Lowell's few letters home dur- 
ing the campaign, his friends learned little of 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 27 

his own part in it. From Harrison's Landing 
he wrote in praise of his horse Bob to his friend 
Mr. Forbes, who gave him, and says: — 

" As to adventures, unless Bob draws the 
long bow on his own account, you will hear 
nothing worth listening to. Except in the 
trenches, we have done our share of all there 
was going — we have escaped wounds and sick- 
ness and hope we may continue to escape them, 
even if one of us thereby loses a month's visit 
to his friends. Thus far, we have found the 
campaign a very pleasant one — healthy camps, 
clear water, a country producing everything in 
abundance. It is only the infantry, poor fellows, 
who have suffered from swamps and from scurvy. 
Just now we are rather dull : Harrison's Land- 
ing in July can, at best, not be lively, and the 
manner in which we came here was certainly not 
cheering." 

Captain Charles Lowell "for distinguished 
services at Williamsburg and Slatersville " was 
recommended for the brevet of Major, and was 
placed by General McClellan upon his staff. In 
enumerating his aides the General says : " Be- 
fore the termination of the campaign Captains 
W. S. Abert and Charles R. Lowell, of the 
Sixth Cavalry, joined my staff as aides-de-camp, 



28 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and remained with me until I was relieved from 
the command of the Army of the Potomac. 
All of these officers served me with great gal- 
lantry and devotion ; they were ever ready to 
execute any service, no matter how dangerous, 
difficult, or fatiguing." 

McClellan's temporary eclipse was followed 
by Pope's disasters ; and when Lee threatened 
the North, and McClellan, recalled to the army 
in the dire emergency, followed him to South 
Mountain, in the battle there the courage of 
the young staff-officer was conspicuous ; but 
his severest trial yet came on the morning of 
Antietam, when the troops of Mansfield and 
Sedgwick, successively attacking on the right, 
were rolled back with terrible mortality. Into 
the storm of lead, to which the oak-trunks and 
rail-fences around the Dunker Church still tes- 
tify, young Lowell, conspicuous as a mounted 
staff-officer, rode carrying orders to the divi- 
sions engaged. Meeting a portion of Sedgwick's 
division broken and retreating under the heavy 
fire, he threw his whole powers to rally it, and 
by the natural command that was in him, the 
fire, the concentration and singleness of aim, 
stayed the tide at an awful moment, re-formed 
the line, and rode with it into the deadly woods. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 29 

His horse was shot twice, his scabbard cut in 
two, and the overcoat on the saddle spoiled by 
a piercing bullet, but he came out unhurt. He 
kept no witnessing trophies of a work which 
perhaps saved local disaster from becoming 
general ; the broken scabbard he threw away, 
gave the torn coat to a negro, and writing a 
short note home, mentions that we "had a 
severe fight yesterday," tells of friends killed 
and wounded, and incidentally of his need of a 
new horse. That is all the friends learned from 
him about himself. General McClellan, how- 
ever, chose him for an honour, equivalent to a 
recommendation for promotion, of carrying to 
Washington and presenting to the President 
the thirty-nine captured standards of South 
Mountain and Antietam.' 

Now came a change : a proposition to raise in 
Massachusetts a new and choice cavalry battal- 
ion, Lowell to take command. As at first pre- 
sented, it did not please him ; the interests of 
the country and a chance to work to advantage 
were what he thought of, not his personal ad- 
vancement. 

" The battaHon as an independent organiza- 
tion," he writes, "is not recognized by the War 
Department. If I get permission to take com- 



30 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

mand of such an organization, it can only be 
through improper influence and in defiance of 
general orders." 

He believed himself more useful on the staff 
of the commanding general than serving with 
his regiment. " But with my own Regiment, 
as Captain, I should now almost always have 
command of a battalion. Were I then to accept 
[this] offer, I should merely be exchanging 
active service for at least temporary inaction for 
the sake of getting rank and pay as Major. I 
want to keep my military record clearer than 
that." 

But a feature of this offer, which would have 
pleased the imagination of many a young offi- 
cer, offended a man used to weigh his fellows 
by other standards than those of -Beacon Street. 
"A regiment of gentlemen? " he asks — "What 
do you mean by gentlemen? Drivers ofgigs?" 

But when the command was put on a recog- 
nized and business-like basis, he got leave to go 
home for the winter to raise the Second Massa- 
chusetts Cavalry, a regiment of varied and at 
first seemingly incompatible material, Califor- 
nia furnishing one battalion of strong and brave 
young riders, the other two being recruited at 
home with some difficulty at a period of war 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 31 

when bad characters constantly enlisted for high 
bounty with intention of immediate desertion, 
very frequently successful. Coming into the 
recruiting office in Boston one day, Colonel 
Lowell found a squad of men there quartered 
in active mutiny, against their sergeant. He 
ordered the men into line, and the ironing of 
the ringleader, promising to hear their com- 
plaint when order was restored. The man, a 
notorious malefactor, backed by others, resisted 
arrest with arms. His instant death, shot after 
fair warning by the Colonel, quelled the mutiny 
and showed the rough characters once for all 
the kind of man with whom they had to deal. 
Lowell knew his duty as man and as officer. 
The shot he fired was a terrible wound to his 
nature, but his duty was clear. In the excited 
crowd that gathered in the square outside on 
hearing the news, one was heard saying, " I 
was with Lowell at the High School, and if he 
did it, it was right." ' 

In camp his standard was high, and he worked 
his regiment hard and schooled them severely. 
The men may have grumbled sorely at the time 
at the severity of the horse-drills, but later, 
when all depended on their good horseman- 
ship, they blessed him for it. A good mechanic. 



32 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

he kept the enginery with which he was to 
work — the men, the horses, and the arms — 
in the best possible condition ; cared Httle for 
the mere show, but exacted neatness and looked 
strictly into details in all important matters. 
He was never cruel, and he respected his men. 
In the days of their apprenticeship they saw in 
him their taskmaster, but one who never spared 
himself, and who was absolutely just. " If 
there was a doubt," says one of his sergeants, 
" Lowell always gave the private the benefit 
of it rather than the officer." No man in the 
regiment, Lowell said, could complain of any 
promise unkept, for the very simple reason 
that in inducing them to enlist no promise had 
been made. 

In May, 1863, Colonel Lowell moved the 
two battalions of his regiment to Washington 
(the First Battalion had gone in January to 
Yorktown, serving in the Fourth Army Corps), 
and, on June i, they went into camp in Mary- 
land, some eight miles northwest of Washing- 
ton. At this time Lee, encouraged by his 
defeat of Hooker at Chancellorsville, began his 
invasion of the North by way of the Shenan- 
doah Valley. As he approached the Potomac, 
the guerrilla force of Mosby made a sudden 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 33 

raid into Maryland as a diversion, and the first 
service of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry 
was in his pursuit ; but they were notified too 
late. Lowell was then ordered to guard the 
Potomac below Harper's Ferry. 

Then the Army of the Potomac pressed 
northward, and Lowell joined it, by General 
Hooker's order. This order was promptly 
countermanded from Washington, but mean- 
while Stuart, with the Confederate cavalry, 
passed into Maryland, much to Lowell's cha- 
grin, by the road he had left. He continued his 
active and responsible watching of the Potomac 
till Lee had retreated from Gettysburg, when 
his command was ordered to the neighborhood 
of Centreville. 

Lowell took pleasure in the way his com- 
mand took the field. He wrote : — 

" I wish you could see how my Battalion 
will turn out to-morrow morning : not an extra 
gew-gaw ; nothing for ornament. If they want 
ornamental troops around Washington, they'll 
let me go. Indeed I have dropped some few 
things which generally have been considered 
necessaries ; two of my companies go without 
any blankets but those under their saddles, — 
that is pretty well for recruits ! " 



34 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Every pound on a horse's back, he well 
knew, would tell in the long marches and rapid 
chase. 

In the important but hard and disagreeable 
duty of protecting the war-front of Washing- 
ton and the lines of communication with the 
forces in the field from the incursions of irreg- 
ular, " partisan " troops, led by Mosby and 
others, Lowell showed ceaseless vigilance and 
great activity, and made his command take root 
in their saddles, and schooled them into a most 
efficient regiment. 

The Massachusetts contingent, weeded, by 
desertion of bounty-jumpers, of the worst ele- 
ment, disciplined, physically improved by reg- 
ular habits and campaigning, and taught to 
ride, became excellent and trustworthy soldiers, 
and held their own with the picked Califor- 
nians, except in horsemanship, in which the 
latter excelled. 

To hold in check a daring force within our 
lines and eager for plunder, the individual mem- 
bers of which knew the broken country and 
wood and mountain paths from boyhood, — who 
were scattered through two counties mainly 
friendly to them, often appearing as Union 
soldiers or citizens, but who, when their rela- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 35 

tives had noted and informed their chief of the 
exact numbers and direction of march of one 
of Lowell's parties, would meet, armed and 
mounted, by night, and make a sudden raid or 
attack at every advantage, scattering afterwards, 
and having no camp, — was a task requiring 
courage, tact, and endless vigilance. Lowell, 
more than any other officer to whom this duty 
was assigned, won Mosby's respect as an ener- 
getic adversary. Lowell wrote to a friend : " I 
feel all you say about * inglorious warfare,' but 
it is all in the days work^ 

And again : — 

" I do not fancy the duty here, serving against 
bushwhackers. It brings me in contact with too 
many citizens, and sometimes with mothers and 
children." 

While doing this irksome but exacting day's 
and night's work as a soldier, Lowell quietly 
did good work as a citizen. For he was con- 
stantly consulted on the large questions of the 
hour by an older friend, Mr. John Murray 
Forbes of Boston, a staunch and wise patriot, 
aiding in the counsels and strengthening the 
hands, not only of Governor Andrew, but of 
the Secretaries of War, the Navy, and the Trea- 
sury. On the slavery question, the methods of 



36 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

recruiting and conscription, on retaliation, on 
exchange of prisoners, Lowell gave clear and 
strong advice, always unselfish, looking broadly, 
but also practically, at the question. At need 
Lowell would write a manly letter to the Sec- 
retary of War or other Washington official, 
never forgetting, however, that he was a soldier. 

On the employment of negroes as soldiers 
he early took strong ground. He felt it very 
important that the experiment be soberly tried, 
and therefore rejoiced in the choice of the 
brave Robert Shaw as colonel of the first negro 
regiment, rather than a man of the fanatical 
reformer type. 

While at Readville, he had become engaged 
to Colonel Shaw's sister, and this, of course, 
deepened his interest in Shaw's manly accept- 
ance of the important trust. 

As a soldier, Lowell protested to high offi- 
cials in Washington at such demoralizing and 
mischievous use of the new negro regiment as 
the plundering and burning Darien Expedition, 
on which a part of the Fifty-fourth Massachu- 
setts Regiment had been ordered. 

Colonel Shaw's death among his men in the 
gallant and desperate assault on Fort Wagner, 
in the trenches of which the scornful foe buried 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 37 

him, — still among them, — moved Lowell 
deeply. Shaw seemed to call him to help in 
that cause, and when it was talked of organizing 
black troops in the West on a large scale, Colo- 
nel Lowell offered his services if needed. Of 
Colonel Shaw he said, " He died to prove the 
fact that blacks will fight, and we owe it to him 
to show that that fact was worth proving ; bet- 
ter worth proving at this moment than any 
other. I do not want to see his proof drop use- 
less for want of strong men and good officers 
to act upon it." 

The First Battalion, under command of Major 
Caspar Crowninshield, came back from the Pe- 
ninsula at the end of July, and thereafter served 
with the regiment. 

Colonel Lowell had now been appointed to the 
command of a brigade consisting of the Second 
Massachusetts and the Thirteenth and Sixteenth 
New York cavalry regiments. With these, 
during the rest of the summer and the autumn 
of 1863 and the following winter, he had upon 
his shoulders the wearing task of neutralizing as 
far as possible the activity of the various guer- 
rilla bands in four counties of Virginia near 
Washington. 

I quote from the interesting paper by Rev. 



38 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Charles A. Humphreys, Colonel Lowell's chap- 
lain, published in the " Harvard Monthly " of 
February, 1886. 

"The winter of 1863-64 was passed in this 
unpleasant, but very responsible service of 
guarding a line of thirty or forty miles from the 
incursions of Mosby's Partisan Rangers, and 
other unorganized guerrillas. To do this effec- 
tually the regiment made constant counter- 
excursions into the surrounding country, and 
broke up the haunts of guerrillas whenever 
scouts discovered them. Though the country 
was necessarily unfamiliar and every engage- 
ment was with unknown forces in their own 
chosen positions, the men never hesitated . . . 
and, by the boldness of their onset, seldom failed 
to strike terror into their ranks." 

A colonel of cavalry with a now well-seasoned 
command eager to serve in the Army of the 
Potomac, Lowell's patience was sorely tried in 
the winter of 1864 by being set the task of 
supplying system and a master, sorely needed, in 
a great cavalry depot near Washington. This 
task lasted four weeks in February and March. 
He did not murmur — did his work well; 
" All in the day's work," was still his cheerful 
view. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 39 

He consoled himself in inactivity by dealing 
with difficult horses. " I do not fancy horses 
who at the outset do not resist; but they must 
be intelligent enough to know when they are 
conquered, and to recognize it as an advance in 
their civilization." Colonel Lowell rode well ; 
light and active and tough, he seemed incapable 
of fatigue. 

The headquarters of Lowell's brigade was at 
Vienna, Virginia, a short distance south of the 
Potomac and fifteen miles from Washington. 
The colonel was married on the last day of Octo- 
ber to Josephine, daughter of Francis George 
and Sarah Blake [Sturgis] Shaw of Staten Island. 
Mrs. Lowell lived with her husband in a little 
house in the camp, and interested herself in the 
regiment, doing all that she could to make life 
pleasanter for the officers and enlisted men. She 
helped the surgeon and chaplain in the hospital, 
and read to the sick or wounded soldiers. She 
stayed in camp until her husband was called to 
more important service. 

When, at last, the time of inaction past, Lowell 
took the field at the opening of Grant's Wilder- 
ness Campaign, and was sent on an important 
reconnoissance, he led his command sixty miles 
the first, and fifty the second day. The regimen- 



40 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

tal surgeon. Dr. Oscar De Wolf, told me he 
had seen Lowell fresh and cheerful after seventy 
hours without sleep, laughing at his officers for 
their woe-begone countenances. 

In July, 1864, when Early pushed his raid 
close to the very defenses of Washington, Lowell 
with his little force seriously harassed his retreat, 
and in a sharp skirmish at Rockville, Maryland, 
showed his strange power over men in the onset 
of a sudden and great danger. I will tell the 
story as told to me by a brave young Californian 
heutenant, who was in the fight, whom I met 
while he was recovering from a severe wound, 
the following autumn. The rear of Early's 
retreating columns, he said, was being sharply 
followed up by Lowell's command, which was 
entering Rockville. Major Crowninshield with 
his battalion had gone forward and was attack- 
ing briskly when the cavalry of the irritated 
enemy turned and charged in great force. Sud- 
denly, upon Colonel Lowell's column advancing 
through the streets, a torrent of riders, flyers and 
pursuers, came pouring at full speed. It would 
have been in vain to have charged them. 
Lowell's men were armed with the new Spencer 
repeating carbine. He shouted confidently the 
order. Dismount ! and let your horses go ! (no 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 41 

horse-holders could be spared, nor was there 
time), and the men obeyed and made a hasty 
line. He waited till the enemy came near, fired 
one volley at short range, — it checked the rush ; 
another, — it stopped it. Then Lowell, on foot, 
ran out before them, waved his hat, and they 
ran forward firing, while their scattered comrades 
turned and rejoined them, and the rout was 
averted. Then he fell back slowly, having suf- 
fered a considerable loss, but taken many pris- 
oners. After Early's retreat he returned with 
his brigade to camp, first at Vienna, then at 
Falls Church near by. 

On the a6th of July Colonel Lowell was 
ordered to the Shenandoah Valley, and put in 
charge of the Provisional Brigade made up of 
his own regiment and small detachments from 
many others; but soon this motley command 
was weeded and improved. His own regiment 
was good, and he trained the others, and the 
brigade fought well at close quarters at Win- 
chester and elsewhere in the Valley, as part of 
General Sheridan's command. 

In the field Lowell began to shine out before 
his men, who had never rightly measured him 
before. His bugler, then a boy, said to me, 
thirty years later, when I asked if he had any 



42 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

criticisms on his commander: "The only fault 
I could ever find with the colonel was the places 
he led me into." A sergeant said : " We always 
felt sure, in however bad a place we were, that 
the colonel could get us out all right." After 
they learned really to know him in the field, he 
said that the men's confidence in and admiration 
for their leader were entire. The surgeon told 
me that soon after the brigade was put into 
active service he saw Lowell ride out from the 
column, and leaving his staff behind, go to a 
hilltop to reconnoitre, and there remain for a 
minute or two, with round shot from the 
enemy's cannon plowing up the ground re- 
peatedly very close to him, perfectly unmoved 
and holding steady his restive horse, then quietly 
rejoin his command. Lowell, he said, knew as 
well as anybody how undesirable it would be to 
have his limbs shattered, but at that period of 
his men's education (up to this time they were 
unused to artillery) he thought that to learn 
how much safer for an individual it was than 
it looked to be shot at with cannon, would be 
a valuable enough lesson to them, to make it 
worth while for once to take what risk there 
was. Incidentally he was educating his horse. 
One of his sergeants said that he had heard the 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 43 

colonel direct a small reconnoitring party thus : 
"Ride up to that point, and do thus and so; 
but when you return don't look behind, keep 
your heads straight to the front." 

In action Colonel Lowell always wore the 
insignia of his rank. He never was willing to 
wear a linen coat or other protection from obser- 
vation of the enemy's sharpshooters. Though 
far from a dandy, he dressed carefully and as 
became his position. When asked why he wore, 
while scouting in a country full of bushwhackers, 
the crimson sash of the officer of those days, he 
answered : " It is good for the men to have me 
wear it." 

One of his officers wrote from the field : — 

" On July 30th [four days after taking com- 
mand] he was ordered to make a reconnoissance 
towards Shepardstown, which he did, driving 
the Cavalry brigade of ' Mudwall ' Jackson 
before him.' His loss was light, and, having 
accomplished his errand, he returned to Har- 
per's Ferry, and the same night was ordered 
to South Mountain, which he reached at sun- 
rise Sabbath morning (31st), after a march of 
seventy miles in twenty-four hours." 

In the first days of August, 1864, Grant sent 
Sheridan to take charge of the Shenandoah 



44 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Valley, a highly important region ; a fruitful 
valley not only in good supplies to the Rebels, 
but hitherto in disaster to us, as being a back 
entry through which, by seizing the few gaps 
in mountains to the eastward, an army living 
on the country and little encumbered by trains 
could rapidly move on Maryland and Pennsyl- 
vania, or, by a jflank movement, on the Capital. 
General Sheridan, on assuming command, 
collected his forces, by General Grant's orders, 
at Harper's Ferry. Thence he advanced and 
pushed the forces of General Early some forty 
miles down the Valley to Strasburg, where the 
Confederate commander took up a strong posi- 
tion. In the middle of August Sheridan re- 
ceived a message from Grant warning him that 
heavy reinforcements for Early were marching 
from Richmond, and would come through the 
gaps of the Blue Ridge upon his flanks and 
rear unless he retired. Sheridan slowly drew 
back to the neighborhood of Harper's Ferry, 
where he took up a strong defensive position 
at Halltown. His deliberate retreat was closely 
pressed by the enemy, and upon his cavalry 
fell the heavy and incessant task of holding 
them in check. General Torbert was Chief of 
Cavalry, and in the First Division (General 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 45 

Wesley Merritt's) Colonel Lowell commanded 
the Third Brigade. 

In the movement up the Valley, on August 
10, three days after General Sheridan took 
command, " Colonel Lowell led the advance, 
and next day met the enemy six miles north of 
Winchester, and after a sharp skirmish turned 
them about and drove them pell-mell through 
the town. The army followed slowly, ajid on 
the afternoon of the 12th had reached Stras- 
burg, where the enemy was in strong position." 
During those weeks, though he was untouched, 
his horses were shot so constantly under him 
that it was with difficulty he could keep 
mounted. 

This extract from a letter to his friend, Mr. 
Forbes, who had helped to keep him in horses, 
and was the father of one of his officers, may 
give some idea of the conditions. It was dated 
at Halltown, Va., August 25, 1864: "About 
horses; I have a sad story to tell. The very 
night after I wrote you how finely Atlanta was 
looking, she was stolen from the line . . . 

" Monday I rode Dick, though he is very un- 
steady under fire — his off hind leg was broken 
and he was abandoned. On Tuesday I tried 
Billy, who proved excellent under fire, — and 



46 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

he got a bullet through his neck : very high up, 
however, and not at all serious. He is just as 
hearty as ever and will not lose an hour of duty. 
. . . [Dick and Billy were the horses of Major 
William H. Forbes, then in a Southern prison, 
and were used by Lowell at need by permission 
of Mr. Forbes.] I should not have ridden these 
horses, but Berold has become entirely uncon- 
trollable among bullets, and poor Ruksh, last 
Friday, the first time I rode him (since he was 
laid up), got another bullet in his nigh fore-leg, 
which will lay him up for a month, and, I fear, 
ruin him. You see I am unlucky in my horses. 
That is not all — The gray is badly corked, 
and can scarcely hobble. However, I find no 
officers have any scruples about riding Gov't 
horses when they can get them, and I shall 
keep myself somehow mounted at U. S. ex- 
pense. 

"Don't mention my ill luck; I have only 
written about it to Effie, — and, after all, it is 
the best form in which ill luck could come." 

How soon Lowell saw the quality of his 
commander this extract from a letter shows : — 

" By the way, 1 like Sheridan immensely, 
whether he succeeds or fails : he is the first 
general I have seen who puts as much heart 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 47 

and time and thought into his work as if he 
were doing it for his own exclusive profit. He 
works like a mill-owner or an iron-master, not 
like a soldier — never sleeps, never worries, is 
never cross, but is n't afraid to come down on 
a man who deserves it." 

That General Sheridan could count on one 
of his brigade commanders for vigilance and 
fidelity as well as brilliant service on the field, 
this scrap from a short letter of Lowell's to his 
wife, written from a barn on a rainy autumn 
morning, bears witness : — 

Sept. 5th, '64. 

. . . Good morning. It is n't a real good 
morning nor even a fresh one : it 's a limp good 
morning; interruptions last night before one 
o'clock and then a line from the General that 
he anticipated an offensive movement this a. m. 
from the enemy, and that we must be saddled, 
&c. at 3. So I had to order myself to be called 
at 2, and after all had to wake the sentry, in- 
stead of his waking me. The consciousness that 
this would be the case cost me several wakes in 
between. That's why I am not fresh, though 
I have been duly shaving and washing and 
brushing. Nothing offensive yet. . . . 



48 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

There was daily fighting for about a fortnight, 
Lowell generally having the rear of the retreat- 
ing column, pressed closely by the enemy. 

The orderly's letter to Mrs. Lowell, earlier 
cited, and written soon after the war, simply 
and picturesquely supplies details of these anx- 
ious days of march and fight, never given by 
Lowell in his letter. 

"... We retreated, I think, to Cedar Creek. 
There we took rear-guard and were skirmishing 
nearly all day. The Colonel got orders to fall 
back from Cedar Creek. There was a piece of 
wood mounted on two wheels of a wagon to 
represent a cannon. The Colonel ordered it to 
be taken along. We raised a little hill and there 
we made a stand. The Rebs were getting range 
on our cavalry, the Colonel ordered this piece 
of wood to be brought out and go through the 
motion of loading. The Rebel artillery took 
range on that wood, and while they were firing 
at that, the Colonel shifted his cavalry under 
cover of the hill, out of range of the artillery. 
We fell back from there. We went down a hill 
and through the woods, and in a field we found 
our ammunition trains that had not been moved. 
Then the Rebs were on top of the hill behind 
us, and the Colonel had to turn and charge and 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 49 

drive them back from the ammunition trains ; 
then he dismounted the men behind stone walls, 
and held them in check until they moved the 
ammunition. I saw the Colonel sitting behind 
the stone wall on his horse, and a shot from a 
cannon struck the wall by him, and for a good 
while I could not see him for the dust and 
stones that flew over and around him. We were 
rear-guard back to Winchester. . . . We kept 
rear-guard until we came up to the army just 
before we came to Harper's Ferry. When we 
got there. General Sheridan wanted to see the 
Colonel. The Colonel went and saw him, and 
came back and took us over on the left of the 
Army. We lay there, near Harper's Ferry, and 
for three or four nights we charged the Rebel 
skirmish-line, and took prisoners. The last 
night General Sheridan and staflF came over just 
as the Colonel had four companies ready to 
charge the Rebel lines. The Colonel went up 
a hollow, — he could go within two hundred 
yards of them. Before they could see him, he 
went out of the hollow, and formed in line and 
charged. The Rebels had rails piled up to form 
breastworks. The Rebels fired a volley Into 
the men. They stopped, and the Colonel rode 
out ahead of them and waved his sabre and 



50 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

cheered them ; then the men started, and he led 
them, and he was the first man to jump the 
rail-pile in to the Rebs ; then they broke and 
run, and the Colonel captured sixty-seven pri- 
vates and seven commissioned officers/ Gen- 
eral Sheridan's orderly told me that when the 
Colonel jumped the rail-pile, the General said, 
* Lowell is a brave man.' . . . They made an- 
other stand between Winchester and Charles- 
town, and we were sent out on the left. We got 
there after dark, there was lots of Rebel infan- 
try and cavalry there ahead of us. The Colonel 
had the drums out of the bands, and beat ' tat- 
too ' all around, like as if there was a lot of 
infantry encamping there. The Rebels did not 
attack us until the next day ; then the Sixth Vir- 
ginia charged the First Maryland. [Lowell's 
brigade then consisted of the Second Massa- 
chusetts, First Maryland, and Twenty-fifth 
New York cavalry regiments.] The First Mary- 
land was on picket, and the Second Massachu- 
setts was just ready to go to relieve them when 
they were charged. Then the Colonel went in 
with the Second Massachusetts, and whipped 
them, and took some prisoners ; when the pri- 
soners came in, they said : * Where is your in- 
fantry ? ' They told them there was no infantry. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 51 

They said they thought there was lots of infan- 
try when they heard the drums beat in the 
night. They said, if they had known that, they 
would have been in on us in the night. Then 
we went back into camp, and that is the last I 
know, for I got my discharge." 

It should be added that in the Adjutant- 
General's Report (Massachusetts) it is stated that 
in July and August the regiment marched eight 
hundred miles. To give to the private's chron- 
icle of his hero something of the solidity given 
to a photograph by the binocular vision through 
the stereoscope, I am permitted to quote Dr. 
DeWolf's letter, written from the field to Mr. 
John M. Forbes only two months later than 
the events it describes occurred : — 

" On the 1 6th of August, General Sheridan 
commenced retiring towards Harper's Ferry, 
the cavalry in the rear, and from this day to 
August 31st Lowell's brigade was skirmishing 
every day (fifteen days), a kind of irregular 
fighting that no one outside the army immedi- 
ately surrounding him ever heard of, but which 
in several instances was very gallant, and always 
requiring that sleepless anxiety and devotedness 
for which Colonel Lowell was so remarkable, 
and which always commended him to his com- 



52 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

manding officer. On the 24th of August, the 
enemy had advanced to within five miles of 
Harper's Ferry and had put out a pretty strong 
picket of two hundred and fifty men which was 
immediately confronted to Lowell's command. 
Two brigades of Rebel cavalry were in reserve, 
half a mile in the rear. On the 25th, General 
Sheridan ordered an attack upon their advance. 
The infantry did not support Colonel Lowell 
promptly and the attack failed. Captain Eigen- 
brodt was killed. The next day, Colonel Lowell 
was ordered to repeat the attack. To succeed, 
it must be done with so much rapidity that 
the reserve could not be brought up. Colonel 
Lowell led the attack, charging up to a rail fence 
behind which were the enemy and over which 
he could not jump his horses, and actually 
whacked their muskets with his sabre. 

"In tearing down the fence, men were clubbed 
with muskets — two were killed in this way — 
but over they went, nothing could resist them. 
The Second Massachusetts captured seventy- 
four men, one lieut.-colonel, three captains, and 
several lieutenants. Colonel Crowninshield led 
his own men ; his heart was steel that day, and 
always is in a fight — God bless him and pro- 
tect him ! Well, this was a small affair, but it 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 53 

was the first of a series of cavalry fights in this 
campaign, of which you do not nor ever will 
know the half. It was the first time that Colo- 
nel Lowell's men had ever really measured him. 
Such a noble scorn of death and danger they 
never saw before, and it inspired them with a 
courage that quailed at nothing. You may be- 
lieve that my personal regard for Colonel Lowell 
colours this a little. You are mistaken ; it is 
temperate and reliable. With one or two excep- 
tions, his officers wished for nothing so much 
as to show him what they dared to do, and he 
would watch them with tears in his eyes. On 
the 13th of September, while making a recon- 
noissance across the Opequon Creek, the enemy 
were found strongly posted behind a fence and 
could not be flanked. General Sheridan said 
they must be moved, and Lieutenants Crocker 
and Thompson (ad Mass., and both now 
wounded) begged permission to do it — and 
they did it. And on the 19th of September 
the command was suffering a good deal from a 
line of skirmishers behind a stone wall. Colonel 
Lowell could not move, — the position was 
important and must be held, — and Lieutenant 
Crocker said, * Give me two companies and I 
will clean them out, or I won't come back.' 



54 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

In this charge Crocker was badly wounded. I 
give you these incidents because you know the 
officers. They are only two among a great 
many." 

General Sheridan, who had never known 
Lowell before these weeks, saw how valiantly 
and warily this young man handled his com- 
mand, and had borne his responsible part in 
guarding the rear in the retreat down the Valley 
from almost incessant attack. 

He gave Lowell, early in September, the 
Reserve Brigade, composed of the First, Sec- 
ond, and Fifth United States Cavalry regiments, 
with his own, the Second Massachusetts, accom- 
panied by a battery of horse artillery (Battery 
D, Second United States Artillery). This was 
a high compliment to the regiment and its com- 
mander. 

Lee, sorely pressed at Richmond and Peters- 
burg, could spare the force sent to Early's aid 
no longer. The present need of the troops to 
defend their capital outweighed the moral effect 
on the North and in Europe of their bold in- 
vasion by way of the Valley, which Sheridan had 
effectively blocked, as well as cutting off their 
subsistence there. So, after four weeks, the 
troops of Anderson and Kershaw returned to 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 55 

Richmond. The moment their withdrawal was 
surely known. Grant came by way of Washing- 
ton and visited Sheridan at Charlestown, Vir- 
ginia, bringing with him a plan of battle. But 
the eager Sheridan had, through prisoners and 
scouts, already learned that Early no longer 
outnumbered him. " Then," said he, " our time 
had come." On the other hand. Grant says : " I 
saw that there were but two words of instruction 
necessary, — go in,'' and he never showed Sheri- 
dan the plan he had brought. 

General Sheridan lost no time. He vigor- 
ously attacked at Winchester with his whole 
army, crossing the Opequon, which defended 
Early's front, at dawn on the 19th of Sep- 
tember. The battle was stubborn, bloody, and 
long all day, but in the evening he could tele- 
graph to Grant : " We have just sent them 
whirling through Winchester, and we are after 
them to-morrow. The army behaved splen- 
didly." The utter rout of Early, two days later, 
from his strong position at Fisher's Hill com- 
pleted the signal victory. A writer of authority 
on the campaigns of the Civil War ' says : " This 
battle restored the lower Valley to Union con- 
trol, from which it was never again wrested ; 
it permanently relieved Maryland and Penn- 



56 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

sylvania from the periodical invasions to which 
they had been subjected during three years, and 
the National Capital from further humiliation." 
In this battle before Winchester, from first to 
last, the cavalry bore their full share. The Re- 
serve Brigade, operating against Early's left, 
won great credit, fighting both mounted and 
dismounted, against infantry and cavalry. In 
this campaign it had been Lowell's aim to edu- 
cate his command up to attacking infantry and 
artillery, and he showed the way himself, leap- 
ing the ditch or breastwork of rails, sword in 
hand. The regimental surgeon, in the letter 
above quoted, said : " At the battle of Win- 
chester, Lowell's brigade was only one among 
a mass of cavalry, all of which excited admira- 
tion from friends and terror in foes. During 
this war the sabre has never reaped such a har- 
vest as on that day. After the first charge I 
could not follow him, but sent an orderly to 
keep as near him as possible, and to let me 
know when he was wounded. He captured two 
guns and one colour. At one time he found him- 
self with one captain and four men face to face 
with a Rebel gun. More were coming, but horses 
were exhausted, and could not be forced to keep 
up with him. The piece was discharged, killing 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 57 

both horses and tearing off the captain's arm. 
The Colonel quietly mounted the first horse that 
came up, and the gun was his." [The officer 
was Captain Rodenbough of the Second United 
States Cavalry, then acting on Lowell's staff. 
He survived the war, and became colonel in 
the regular army.j Colonel Newhall of General 
Sheridan's staff tells, in his spirited and amus- 
ing book, "With Sheridan in Lee's Last Cam- 
paign," that in the first two years of the war the 
trooper, as he rode jingling by the dusty infantry 
column, was apt to hear one say to another : 
*' Say, boys, who ever saw a dead cavalryman? " 
Those days had gone by. The loss in battle of 
cavalry, as compared with infantry, in proportion 
to the numbers engaged, in the Shenandoah 
Campaign, seems to have been upwards of three 
to four. 

General Grant had ordered Sheridan to lay 
waste the Valley, that it might no longer entice 
to invasions of the North, support passing Con- 
federate troops, and feed those in the field, as 
well as harbor guerilla bands. To save the Val- 
ley and harass Sheridan, a fresh force of cavalry 
now came on the scene, commanded by General 
Rosser, an enterprising and brave officer. 

On the 9th of October, when this newly ar- 



58 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

rived commander had " had the temerity," as 
Sheridan put it, " to annoy my rear-guard con- 
siderably " with cavalry, the General ordered 
General Torbert to go in with the cavalry " and 
either give Rosser a drubbing or get whipped,^* 
and himself deliberately went, with his staff, on 
to a hill, as to a spectacle, to see it done. 

In Lowell's letters one must read between 
the lines. At sunrise on the morning of this 
great cavalry fight he writes his wife : — 

Near Strasburg, Sunday, 7 a.m., Oct. 9. 

Our boys have n't been able to find any water 
for us this morning and we have n't washed our 
faces. The first time that I remember in the 
history of the war. It 's jolly cold however, so 
we don't mind so much. We actually had snow 
flurries yesterday, and to-day promises worse. 

We had a skirmish yesterday with their cav- 
alry. Lieut. Tucker wounded and Sergt. Wake- 
field ; — the roan horse killed, and to-day I 
shall have to ride the gray unless I can find 
Sergeant Wakefield's horse. Enos has been 
looking for him for two hours. We are expect- 
ing another brush with their cavalry to-day, as 
we are ordered to advance again. I should like 
to have Sundays quiet. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 59 
And next day : — 

Near Strasburg, Monday, Oct. 10. 

It is just noon, and we have gone into camp 
for the day in a lovely green field with plenty 
of forage and lots of rails to burn, — and I 've 
just had a bath. It's still cold (frost and ice 
this A. M. and I have to lie with nothing but 
my overcoat) and I have two or three slight 
colds in the head — but it's splendid October 
and very exhilarating. 

Enos found Sergeant Wakefield's horse yes- 
terday and I rode him all day, and he did n't 
get hit, though his saddle did, and our brigade 
chased two Rebel brigades more than ten miles 
and took a battle flag and four guns and cais- 
sons and wagons, &c., &c., so my disinclina- 
tion for "fight" yesterday morning was a pre- 
sentiment that came to naught. 

Lowell commanded one brigade of Merritt's 
three, and with it (probably within an hour of 
the time he writes the first letter) opened in the 
early morning this, which has been called by 
some writers the greatest cavalry fight in the 
war. 

In the two letters one sees little picture of 



6o LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

that gallant tournament of many brigades, clad 
in faded blue jackets and gray blouses — 

"The clank of scabbards 
And thunder of steeds. 
The blades that shine like sun-lit reeds. 
The strong brown faces bravely pale 
For fear the proud attempt shall fail." ^ 

That came later in the day, but first the 
young Colonel on horseback led his dismounted 
line into the fierce fire. I was told that when, 
in the mounted fighting that day, the golden 
moment of the wavering came — which side 
shall run? — quick as a flash Lowell saw it and 
at his order his trumpets rang out the charge. 
All the troops engaged, Merritt's and Custer's 
divisions fought Rosser, Lomax, and Johnson 
gallantly. The rout was so complete, and the 
pursuit so fast and far, that the day was called 
in the region Woodstock Races. Officially it is 
known as the action of Tom's Brook. 

The surgeon of the Second Massachusetts 
Cavalry, a strong, skilful man, who had seen 
much service, writing of Lowell, on the day 
after his death, to one of his friends, said : — 

" During the present campaign no command 
has been called on so often as the Reserve Bri- 
gade to do difficult work — and I know it has 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 6i 

always been done well. He exposed himself 
mercilessly, and I used to tremble for his safety. 
Many times when his dismounted skirmish-line 
were hard pressed, or falling back, he would 
ride up among them and keep them to their 
work. Mounted, he was a prominent mark for 
the enemy, and they never spared him. On the 
9th of this month [the fight at Tom's Brook] 
he rode up to a corner of a fence where two 
men of his skirmish-line were crouching to pro- 
tect themselves from the storm of bullets, and 
ordered them to advance. I dared not look at 
him for / knew he would fall^ and yet he came 
back steadily and all right, his horse always 
wounded or killed, and himself never, until I 
began to feel that he was safe — but how, God 
alone knew." 

Yet in these very days Colonel Lowell was 
writing to his young wife at home, who had lived 
with him in the camp near Washington until he 
was called out to the campaign in the Valley : — 

" I don't want to be shot till I 've had a chance 
to come home. I have no idea that I shall be 
hit, but I want so much not to be now that it 
sometimes frightens me." 

When they had indulged in a dream of quiet 
travel after the war, he wrote : " The Nile would 



62 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

be very pleasant, but we do not own ourselves 
and have no right to even wish ourselves out 
of harness." ..." Do not feel anxious. It is 
not our business." 

When General Early, on the memorable 19th 
of October, during Sheridan's absence, surprised 
at dawn and nearly routed our army at Cedar 
Creek, Lowell's brigade had much to do in 
preventing more complete disaster. The night 
before, he had been ordered to make an early 
reconnoissance on the right, and at dawn he 
rode with his command into the heavy mist, 
under cover of which Early's whole force was 
stealing upon the camp of the sleeping Union 
army. Lowell's punctuality averted complete 
surprise on the right, where he soon came on 
the enemy's cavalry, engaged them, and delayed 
their advance. Unhappily the weight of the 
Confederate attack was upon the left flank, and 
there the surprise and their success was at first 
complete. Camps were plundered, stragglers by 
hundreds crowded the road to Winchester, but 
General Wright, in temporary command, with 
the troops which Crook, Emory, and Ricketts 
still held in hand, fell back, regaining order as 
they went, and fighting stubbornly. The cav- 
alry did particularly well, and the horse artillery 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 63 

which accompanied them are said to have been 
the only batteries in action for several hours. 

Colonel Lowell, who with the Reserve Bri- 
gade had obstinately opposed the Rebel advance 
on the right, was now ordered to the left, where 
the need was far greater. He rode at the head 
of his brigade three miles along the front of the 
retiring battle, between the skirmishers and the 
main line, though often under fire, as coolly as 
though on parade, and the sight revived the 
courage of the brave Nineteenth Corps. General 
William Dwight, commanding its First Division, 
wrote thus of Lowell's passage: "They moved 
past me, that splendid cavalry ; if they reached 
the Pike, I felt secure. Lowell got by me be- 
fore I could speak, but I looked after him for 
a long distance. Exquisitely mounted, the pic- 
ture of a soldier, erect, confident, defiant, he 
moved at the head of the finest body of cavalry 
that to-day scorns the earth it treads." He took 
up and, with part of his brigade dismounted, 
held, under galling fire, his position near the ex- 
treme left at the village of Middletown, and made 
two mounted charges on the infantry, checking 
their advance. Sheridan says that when later 
in the forenoon he arrived from Winchester, 
Lowell's cavalry and a part of the Sixth Corps 



64 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

were all the troops he found actually engaged 
with the enemy, and his first message was to 
Colonel Lowell, inquiring whether he could hold 
his position. He said that he could, and the 
new line was formed close behind it. The com- 
mand was in a slight depression of the ground, 
affording some shelter ; nevertheless a Rebel 
battery was very troublesome, and sharpshooters 
on the roofs of Middletown were sending their 
bullets incessantly among his skirmishers posted 
along a stone wall. The mounted Colonel was a 
mark for them as he rode out to reconnoitre, 
and a rifle ball, probably glancing from this wall, 
struck him in the chest with great force, but did 
not penetrate.' It caused faintness and loss of 
voice, so he lay for a time on the ground, cov- 
ered by the overcoat of one of his staff and 
sheltered from shot, till his strength should come 
back, determined to lead when the line should 
advance. " It is only my -poor lung," he said, 
when he raised blood, and would not leave the 
field, as General Torbert urged him to do. But 
in the middle of the afternoon it was evident 
that the great forward movement of the whole 
army, re-formed and inspired by Sheridan, to 
redeem the honour of the day, was at hand. The 
Colonel was helped on to his horse — the thir- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 65 

teenth horse in as many weeks had been shot 
under him in one of the forenoon charges — 
and formed his brigade for the last time, whis- 
pering his orders to his aides, for his voice was 
gone, determined again to charge and to take 
the destructive battery before them. He drew 
his sabre and took position, not as brigade com- 
mander in rear of the line, but as colonel before 
it. The bugles gave the signal, and the com- 
mand, formed in brigade front, rode rapidly 
towards the enemy. Almost immediately the 
Colonel was struck by a bullet and fell. The 
brigade swept on towards the battery. That 
charge was repulsed with loss,' but was renewed, 
and soon the day ended in a great and conclu- 
sive victory. It cost the life, with many more, 
of Lowell, whose faithfulness, cool courage, and 
tenacity had done so much to save its ending 
in disaster and rout. He was carried forward in 
the rear of his charging cavalry to the village 
of Middletown. 

When, twenty-five years later, the writer of 
this memoir sought out the surgeon of the Sec- 
ond Massachusetts Cavalry in a Western city, 
he told the story of his Colonel's last hours 
thus : " I can see that old house in Middletown 
as plainly as if I were there. It was on the left 



66 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

of the road. I could go straight to the place. 
There were four or five that night in the room. 
Lowell lay on the table, shot through from 
shoulder to shoulder ; the ball had cut the spinal 
cord on the way. Of course, below this he was 
completely paralyzed. Four others were lying 
desperately wounded on the floor. One young 
officer was in great pain. Lowell spent much 
of his ebbing strength helping him through the 
straits of death. * I have always been able to 
count on you, you were always brave. Now 
you must meet this as you have the other trials 
— be steady — I count on you.' When he heard 
the groans of the Rebel wounded that were 
brought into the yard, he sent me away to look 
after them. As the night wore on and his 
strength failed, I said : ' Colonel, you must write 
to your wife.' He answered that he was not 
able, but I said it could be managed ; so, putting 
a scrap of paper on a piece of board, I held his 
arm above him, putting a pencil between his 
fingers, and holding the hand against the paper, 
told him I thought he would find that he could 
use his fingers. And thus he wrote a word or 
two of farewell to her." 

These further details of the Colonel's last 
hours, given by his staff officers who were with 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 67 

him, are borrowed from Professor James Mills 
Peirce's Memoir, mentioned before. "He gave 
no signs of suffering; his mind was perfectly 
clear and he rested calm and cheerful, though he 
knew from the beginning that he had no chance 
of life. He dictated some private messages 
of affection. Then, from time to time, as his 
waning strength would allow, he gave complete 
directions about all the details of his command. 
Not the smallest thing was forgotten ; no one 
was left in doubt. In the intervals he remained 
in silence, with his eyes closed. He expressed 
pleasure in the triumphant issue of the fight, 
and in Colonel Gansevoort's victory over Mosby, 
news of which was brought that day. As dawn 
approached it was evident that the spirit was 
gradually freeing itself from its vesture of decay. 
He had finished his May's work,' and he lay 
tranquil, his mind withdrawn, it seemed, into 
that chamber of still thought, known so imper- 
fectly to the nearest of his friends, wherein was 
the seat of his deepest life. Even in his last hour 
he was fully conscious and seemed to retain his 
strength. But he spoke less and less often ; and 
as the day rose into full morning he ceased to 
breathe the air of earth." 

Charles Lowell was twenty-nine years old 



68 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

when he died. For a year he had done to the 
full the work of a brigadier-general. While he 
was fighting his last fight on the field of Cedar 
Creek, his commission as such in the volun- 
teer army was signed at Washington. It never 
reached him, but he had little care for that. 
Like the Norse hero he might well say, — 

** Where the gods have asked for one gift, I have ever given 
them tvpain." 



I remember, one rainy day when the sudden 
gusts blew the yellow leaves in showers from 
the College elms, hearing the beautiful notes 
of Pleyel's Hymn, which was the tune to which 
soldiers were borne to burial, played by the 
band as the procession came, bearing Charles 
Lowell's body from his mother's house to the 
College Chapel ; and seeing the coffin, wrapped 
in the flag, carried to the altar by soldiers; and 
how strangely in contrast with the new blue 
overcoats and fresh white and red bunting were 
the campaign-soiled cap and gauntlets, the worn 
hilt and battered scabbard of the sword that lay 
on the coffin. The venerable Dr. Walker used 
with great feeling the beautiful words of the 
Old Testament: "The beauty of our Israel 
fallen in the high places " — and the rest. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 69 

Yet Lowell stood and stands to all who saw 
and knew him for Life, and not for Death. 
Sometimes death seems but a wall with vary- 
ing portals through which life flows out of 
sight. 

Slight in frame and stature, with commanding 
intellect and fine taste, a lover of the classics 
and versed in philosophy, he led a crowded life, 
never drowned by his work — and found all 
in the day's v^ov^l good : filed iron or kept his 
ledger, rode in the rain or kept his men quiet 
under fire, or fought hand to hand with sabre 
among, or before them. He exacted full mea- 
sure of duty, and built up a standard for his 
men, but he advanced that standard by his own 
example. As a soldier, he showed them the 
truth that underlay what in early youth he said 
to their seniors, — that a supposed knowledge 
of what cannot be but hampered their onward 
movement ; that " the world advances by im- 
possibilities achieved." Just and faithful to his 
men, they trusted him entirely in the field. He 
had great power over his officers, and tried to 
help them. Even in an active campaign he 
studied, and at his field headquarters his brother 
officers were astonished to see some of the best 
works on military science. 



70 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Some general officers were pleased to have a 
ready writer at their headquarters, and thus have 
their deserts widely heralded. Lowell would 
not allow a newspaper correspondent in his 
camp. For danger or service only did he put 
himself forward. Rewards must find him, and 
he was silent about himself. " He held that a 
straight line was the shortest way between two 
points," said one of his staff. 

He worked or fought mainly with his head, 
but never hesitated with his hand at the fitting 
time. His performance seemed to cost him no 
eflFort. It was given to him at the moment 
what he should do. Sheridan said, " I never 
had to tell him what to do. He had seen and 
done it." Thus he always found his life for- 
tunate. 

He believed in his Country ; at her call 
weighed life and all that such life meant as dust 
in the balance. He seemed born for a soldier, 
but his wish was to be a good citizen, his hope, 
to raise the standards, and widen the horizons 
of the working multitudes of Americans. 

" Forms of faith were nothing to him," said 
one who knew him in his early youth, " but he 
lived always in the presence of the invisible." ' 

The daring image conveyed in these lines of 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 71 

a New England man, a poet, who also fought 
for his country, seems to me a fitting close for 
this story : — 

**Is it so unhappy then 
To die for God and for Mother, 
Rendering the Soul like men ? 
Is it grievous, weapon in hand. 
For faith and the holy name 
To pass in strength to the wondrous land 
By the portal of steel and flame ? 

** Thunder to-day at the outer gate. 
Earth's eager squadrons form; 
The daring spirits that could not wait 
Are taking Heaven by storm: 
The splendour of battle in their eyes 
They enter even now, — 
How it lights the port of Paradise, 
The death-gleam on each brow." ' 



LETTERS 
I 

SCHOLAR AND WORKMAN 

The generous spirit, who when brought 
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought 
Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought. 

The Happy Warrior. 



I 

SCHOLAR AND WORKMAN 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON * 

Cambridge, September 12, 1852. 

DearHiggy, — I really felt perfectly ashamed 
of myself the other day when I reflected that, 
although it was nearly six months since you 
left, you had never received from me a single 
line. But you remember that although the six 
months may seem a perfect age to you, who 
have had so many new experiences, with me 
they have passed very quickly. A pretty poor 
excuse, you will say, and so it is, but let it go 
for what it is worth. 

Now then for some news, and as I am writ- 
ing to a newly fledged Sophomore, the foot- 
ball game very naturally occupies the first 
place. ^ And a splendid aff^air it was ! The 
" Fresh " (or fresh) kicked grandly, and so did 
about a dozen of the Sophs. But the greater 
part of your class, and there were a great many 



76 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

of them on the ground, behaved spoonily. In 
the first two games your class came off " wic- 
torious," as was to be expected, but in the heat 
and tumult of the third something very unex- 
pected turned up. The Freshmen, having got 
a fair kick, had driven the ball almost home, 
amidst loud cheers from us Juniors, and with 
redoubled shrieks on their own part. Deceived 
or confused by the yells, the stupid Soph who 
was nearest the ball picked it up, and walked 
quietly down with it under his arm, of course 
admitting it was a beat. This movement was 
greeted by the Fresh by tremendous — I-don't- 
know- what -to -call -'ems, which we Juniors 
caught up and repeated, to the exceeding wrath 
and indignation of the few sophomoric Sophs, 
who knew how the matter really stood, but 
their resistance was no go. Your class was fairly 
bluffed, and the game was not tried over again. 
As the case now stands, the Fresh claim one 
victory y while the Sophs condescendingly admit 
that the Fresh kicked very well, and confess 
with a lordly air that it was hard work beating 
the third game. In the three games which fol- 
lowed between the Seniors and Sophs on one 
side, and our Class and the Fresh on the other, 
we were outrageously beaten. Steph Perkins 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 77 

was on the ground fighting lazily, and I ob- 
served tuum fratrem on the fence. What a pity 
it was, by the way, that Perk did not go abroad 
with you, as he has, as you know, got to leave 
college for this term at least. . . . 

Matters in Cambridge go on very much as 
they always have, notwithstanding the absence 
of the great Higginson, although he doubtless 
can hardly believe it. Yesterday were given out 
the parts for exhibition, and the Latin Version 
fell to your humble servant, who, as you know, 
has taken a gigantic step from Soph to Junior, 
and seriously, I assure you, the change from 
Soph to Junior is much greater than that from 
Fresh to Soph. 

I really feel a great deal older now than I 
did three years, or even two months, ago. 
"A change has come o'er the spirit of my 
dreams." 

Jim Savage' tells me he is going to write to 
you at once, but, as he is going pretty strong 
into history, I don't know when he will get 
time. ..." Our Mutual Friend," Peirce, has 
had quite an experience this vacation. He was 
going down the Hudson in the "Henry Clay" 
when she caught fire and burnt up. P., as 
the papers said, " swam ashore from the burn- 



78 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ing vessel " with his baggage and traps ; but, 
from our experience in the Saco, you know very 
well that he cannot swim a stroke, and that 
he could as easily fly ashore with his trunk as 
swim. In reality he escaped by rushing through 
the flames to the bows, and jumping thence 
upon the shore. Still, it was quite an awful 
experience, and more than fifty people were 
burnt or drowned.' 

I remain, old fellow, with many best wishes. 
Your aflFectionate cousin, 

Charlie. 

to his mother 

Chicopee, April i, 1855. 
For your satisfaction I will say that my life 
here is just exactly what we all expected, neither 
better, nor worse, and I go on my way rejoic- 
ing : although Chicopee is not the place to pass 
one's life in — the ripening process going on 
so slowly that it must take at least five hun- 
dred years to turn an infant into a full grown 
man, — yet for a year I shall find enough and 
more than enough which will be very interest- 
ing and very improving. A little occasional fric- 
tion is necessary, however, and that I expect to 
get from Springfield. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 79 

TO F. B. SANBORN ' 

Chicopee, April 15, 1855. 

You know very well that I am by no means 
" a most excellent devil of wit " when I get a 
pen in my hand : and a letter to answer al- 
ways makes me wish to " retire silent for three 
days together, to my bed," like the " rugged 
Brindly." ' You will therefore be rather sur- 
prised at hearing from me at all. Your proposal 
that I should pass the last Sunday of April in 
Concord suits me exactly. 

Verily, the lines have fallen unto you in 
pleasant places, there in Concord; so far as en- 
joyment goes, both your circumstantes and your 
circumstantia are infinitely ahead of mine ; but 
I do not by any means envy you — different 
plants need different soils, and the place where 
I am now vegetating is quite as good for me as 
yours is for you. In mere handiwork, I am and 
always shall be a machine of one-very-small- 
boy power, but that of course is nothing to me, 
and the number of real things which ought to 
be done, which one comes across in a life like 
mine, is perfectly astonishing, 

*• And, like a rat without a tail, 
I '11 do, I '11 do and I '11 do.'* 



8o LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Active life alone however never made a man 
of anybody, and I can assure you, I depend 
not a little upon you and Bancroft to make an 
integer of me; Johnny to keep me right with 
one half the world;' you, with the other and 
with myself, — rather a hard task, a labor Her- 
culiSy but as Carlyle says, " Infinite is the assist- 
ance man can render to man." 

Here in my hermitage my mind is more than 
ever impressed with the mighty power of con- 
versation; in " mere talk," when aided by actual 
meeting of the " I and thou." Socrates was a 
wiser man than I ever supposed before, and 
was perfectly right to abstain from lectures and 
speeches, and even books. I am bent there- 
fore upon having a club, and using this engine 
in that small way at least. It will be of assist- 
ance in a thousand things ; gerund-grinding, for 
instance, is in some sort a mechanical opera- 
tion; may not I who am studying all sorts of 
mill-work, be able to give you some new ideas 
in the matter? Homer says in the Odys- 
sey that " the Gods know one another even 
though they dwell far apart," — not so men ; 
but men should know one another, and must, 
if they wish to do good service in any common 
cause. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 8i 

TO WILLIAM J. POTTER ^ 

Chicopee, Sunday, May 20, 1855. 

My Dear Potter, — Letters of advice are 
not down among the regular college studies (and, 
by Plato ! I '11 never attempt one again as an 
" elective "), so an A. B. can hardly be expected 
to indite a good one : neither do they " come 
by Nature," at least not to rude mechanics like 
myself; therefore, O Pedagogue, drop for a time 
thy rod of office, and remember that I am not 
trying for a bene^ and care for nothing beyond 
the end of my file. I knew, of course, my dear 
fellow, that you would be disappointed in the 
scheme proposed, — so am I, — so are all of us 
who have in our minds what Fichte would call 
the Divine Idea of a club. Did you ever see 
three old toads perched on the corner of a door- 
step, or squatting at the side of a gravel walk ? 
If you have, you have seen my idea of a perfect 
club — three good fellows who have hopped 
together instinctively ^ who can enjoy one an- 
other's company even in silence, and can inter- 
pret all spoken words by that silence which 
Carlyle calls the better part of speech, — even 
here the highest height is not reached till one 
of the three goes to sleep, then we have two 



82 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

active poles and between them a centre of rest, 
and as Coleridge would say, then the club has 
Life, You see, I grow absurd up here in my 
solitude : but you know well enough what I 
mean. We have had " times " in college which 
suggested the possibility of infinite enjoyment 
from a club, but these are like beautiful sunsets, 
they are things to be remembered and things to 
be sighed for, but not things to be "got up," 
nor is it from noctes like these that the desire 
of our present "Club" has grown up; in my 
mind, at least, there is a difference of kind as 
well as of degree, and this must not be thought 
ridiculous, because those were so sublime. You 
and Sanborn and I are by nature reformers, we 
have hands given us, the age and the country 
furnish stuff enough, the only thing is to im- 
prove the tool, and for this we must study the 
nature of the metal we are to work in ; these 
are cant terms, I know, but strip off the cant 
and you will find a germ of the genuine in them. 
Now what better specimen of the really " hon- 
ourable" man could you pick out than Erving, 
or of the earnest scientific man than Agassiz? 
In Higginson we have a real honest soul, and in 
Johnny, genius and taste without the reforming 
ingredient, — if Perkins and Brooks ' come in 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 83 

as the satirist and the humourist, why, so much 
the better for us, but by Jove ! Potter, even 
without them we have a variety not to be sur- 
passed. And now, I suppose you will ask in a 
quiet way what good all this variety is going to 
do you, who will only rub against it, very gently, 
for two or three hours in the course of a month. 
It certainly is surprising, as Thoreau says, how 
many souls with their bodies can be collected 
in a very small room, and separate without feel- 
ing aware that they have been near to one an- 
other. Now why is this ? I go out, of a Sunday 
evening, and walk by the banks of the Chicopee; 
I come home and read Wordsworth ; and then 
of course thoughts arise which I perfectly yearn 
to communicate with some one. But suppose 
that yearning is stifled, one's wings drop, and 
down one comes to the commonplace. . . . 
Now in so far as such thoughts are purely per- 
sonal in their nature, they are the precious life- 
blood of the soul, and reserve about them is 
holy, — for life-blood cannot and should not be 
parted with. But the very longing we have to 
tell them proves that they are not wholly per- 
sonal, but rather in a great measure universal 
and, in so far, are, or should be, true and fitting 
for all men, at all times, in all places, and re- 



84 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

serve about them is undesirable. The common 
complaint that the one half of the world does 
not know how the other half of the world lives 
is far more true of spiritual life than of phys- 
ical, and it is true enough of this. When I was 
in college, I knew that old Potter, whom all 
the class imagined so staid and so serious, was 
one of the youngest and freshest men we have, 
and this gave him a charm which to me was 
worth all his solid thought a thousand times 
over. But old Potter possessed (to borrow from 
Carlyle) the wonderful power of " consuming 
his own smoke : " naturally enough he became 

disgusted with us men of the stamp, who 

belch forth all their fire and smoke together, — 
this acted badly on him, and besides consuming 
his smoke, he also in his disgust concealed 
his fire, — this again acted badly on us open- 
mouthed chimneys, and sometimes we poured 
forth the rankest blasphemy, — more 's the 
shame to us; but the only moral I draw wow is, 
that men who have fires should not hide them 
under bushels, for indirectly and involuntarily 
they may produce conflagrations which even 
Phillips' Fire-Annihilators cannot extinguish. 
And now to apply all this to our club ; I start 
with the proposition that man does not live by 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 85 

bread alone; this I follow up by the position 
that almost everything which is food for one, is 
also food for all, — the peculiar in a man is very 
small compared with the common in him ; still, 
if I attempt to force upon another man this 
little peculiarity of mine (which, though food 
to me, may be poison to him) I am acting fool- 
ishly and wrongly, — and therefore I maintain 
that the great work of every man who wishes 
to become a Teacher or Priest, is to discrimi- 
nate exactly where the universal within him ter- 
minates. When he has done this, he will no 
longer hesitate or feel bashful about speaking 
it out. Now I am going to this club, for the 
express purpose of settling this boundary as 
distinctly as I can, and I want you to do the 
same, — I will use the knowledge I get to 
check my tongue, you use what you get to 
spur you on. A better chance, so far as it 
goes, could not be desired. The members are 
about our own age, have about our own ac- 
quirements, — and are entirely uncongenial in 
their tastes. A silent man can ask himself 
enough questions in two hours to keep him 
thinking for a month, and to make him wiser 
for a lifetime. 



86 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Chicopee, June 24th. 

Dear Mother, — Your last letter was really- 
delightful, by far the balmiest I have got since 
I came here, — I only wish you could find time 
to write oftener. I am glad to hear that the 
pantaloons are finished, not, however, because, 
as you hint, I think it " necessary to exclude 
work " to make life " gracious as roses." There 
is, of course, a poetry in pantaloons, as well as 
in women and youth, but the point I insist on 
is that you are not yet able to enjoy it. For our 
family, work is absolutely necessary, but, by 
Plato ! our lives need not for that cease to be 
poems. Roses work — there is a good deal of 
force-pumping to be gone through before a rose 
can get itself fairly opened — and force-pumping, 
your ears will tell you this evening, is rather 
hard on the muscles. But you mistake, I think, 
in not choosing more judiciously the sort of 
work. Roses never think of forcing their red 
juice into their roots, — if they did, their poetry 
would soon vanish : but beets don't find this 
work at all prosaic ; — on a fine day like this I 
can fully understand that the joy of swelling 
and swelling should make it highly poetic. You 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 87 

feel the necessity of a choice in great things, 
such as settling my profession — but in small 
things I am afraid you are inclined to overlook 
it. Sweep rooms, — that you can do poetically, 
— but don't make any more pantaloons at pre- 
sent : even George Herbert's "Elixer" can 
make that but poor prose for you.' The plea- 
sure of sewing at an open window I fully enter 
into, — the happiest afternoon I ever knew (and 
I use the word happiest in its highest sense) was 
passed at an open window, the first of the season, 
filing away on cast iron. I am thinking that you 
did not understand my meaning when I endeav- 
ored to convince you that the need of work is 
a disease: I mean that the " divine men " have 
no such need. . . . The " Heroes " of the world 
have certainly needed work and had it and done 
it well, and it is Heroes that we must try to be. 
I have tried a three months' experiment and 
found that the life suits me, and now what is to 
be done next? You know what my feelings 
about corporations were before 1 came up here: 
you know that they have only been confirmed 
by what I have seen here, and you know my 
desire to establish some concern which shall be 
permanent in the family, after the English and 
not the American mode. 



88 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

1 have spoken to Mr. Ames about the Nov- 
elty works, — he says it is the best place of the 
sort in the country, but thinks it would be well 
to work with my hands still longer. About this, 
therefore, I have written to young Stillman,also 
inquiring the conditions, the prospectus, &c. If 
his answer is favourable, I shall go down there 
and get a thorough knowledge of steam work, 
practical and scientific, for they, Mr. Ames tells 
me, are scientific, while up here there has been 
no science since N. P. Ames died, — no chance 
for any, in fact, except on the water wheels, and 
all these they get from Boyden in Boston, who 
is the greatest living authority.' The knowledge 
which I shall get of steam in three or four years 
will enable me to command a salary of some 
sort, and will always give me something to fall 
back upon, — but my ultimate plans go beyond 
this, the business I mean to put my real energy 
into is bronze-founding. I have looked into 
the outside of the matter a good deal since 
I have been here and have come to the delib- 
erate opinion that here is an opening for a 
permanent private concern, and that a corpora- 
tion cannot, in the long run, at all compete 
with it. 

I spent four or five hours with Richard Green- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 89 

ough/ the other morning, and took occasion to 
get all I could from him with regard to the 
prospective demand for bronzes in this country. 
He thinks that even within ten years there will 
be an immense increase in the number required 
both of large and small. Now it seems to me 
that here is an opening for me. I shall study 
all that books can tell about the practical part, 
and a good deal has been written on the sub- 
ject. I shall get from Stillman and his friend 
Brown, &c., just what are the great desiderata 
in the finish, &c., for here Ames is still deficient. 
I shall learn to speak German, which will be 
very easy in New York, and French, which 
will be harder. Then, if the Ames Company 
want any one, I shall be able to come in on dif- 
ferent terms : if not, and this is what I expect, 
I shall within ten years be able to get money 
enough to go to Munich and to Paris, study 
their peculiar processes, and if need be, get a 
few foreign hands ; for if I can show a really 
good chance for a business, — partners with capi- 
tal are not difficult to find in this country. You 
see I do not expect to grow rich in a hurry, 
but merely hope to found a respectable English 
foundry, under the control of partners, not 
agents. 



90 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Don't think I am growing uneasy, for I 
never was better situated, and don't be afraid 
that I shall grow unsettled, — 

** To give room for wandering is it 
That the world was made so wide." ' 

By the way, I have been reading " Walt 
and Vult" yet again, and with renewed de- 
light, — Jean Paul enjoyed the poetry of com- 
mon life better than any one that has ever 
written. He made the world he lived in. So 
did Sir Thomas Browne, and it is for this, 
among many other things, that I am so fond 
of him. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Chicopee, July loth, 1855. 
Don't suppose that the great city is what 
attracts me to New York, — on the contrary, 
in my present mood I swear by Pythagoras, 
and would like nothing better than a seven 
years' silence. Alter the Orphic saying of one 
of our mythical Cabot great-aunts, and you 
have my "idees" exactly, — " It's bad enough 
to be poor, without having to have things " — 
including among " things," of course, all the 
paraphernalia for starting. The best way to 
learn to swim is to plunge. I shall not think 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 91 

of going to New York without some sort of 
salary, and I shall go, not to learn, but to earn. 
This, with my feelings about Corporations, ex- 
plains all that I can by letter. If I had either defi- 
nite prospects or immediate support, I should 
be perfectly satisfied where I am, for several 
years. Chicopee, it is true, is not "a distant 
Grecian sky," — but sons of Agamemnon may be 
nursed here. You remember Schiller's "Artist." 
It applies equally well to men. By the way, 
one would suppose from the manner in which 
you rub diamond-dust into me from Mrs. J.'s 
common-place book, that you thought me a 
very rough diamond, needing polish. I am 
afraid, however, my carbon is not crystallized. 
I have a lance to break with you yet for James, 
and also for Emerson.^ 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Chicopee, July 22, 1855. 
Verily, verily, my dear Book-keeper, it would 
be no breach of charity to call thee fool. Why 
were you not in Springfield yesterday? Could 
not the Ledger take care of itself for a few 
hours? Better it were that a mill-stone were 
hanged about thy neck than such a book. I 
surely counted on your passing the day with 



92 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

me, and going down on the Sunday night train, 
and now, in this my grievous disappointment, 
I am sitting with ashes on my head, waiting for 
the shops to open that I may buy a garment 
of sackcloth. By the Sacred Styx, my dear 
Nabob, as soon as you can afford it — it being 
the time and money — you must come up and 
pass Sunday with me. Now, however, I wish to 
ask a favour of you. Will you lend me two vols, 
of your Schiller, the one containing "William 
Tell," and the one containing essays on the 
"Mission of Moses" and "The Systems of 
Solon and Lycurgus," &c. ? 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Chicopee, Sunday, Aug. 12. 
The last two Sundays I have passed at Spring- 
field and been to church twice a day, and my 
"moral retrogradation," as Whewell says, is 
very perceptible. I shan't go often. I meet too 
many "first cousins to Lady Jones and of such 
is the Kingdom of Heaven." For "Balder" I 
am very much obliged.' I like it extremely, — 
on that, however, I won't commence, nor on 
Henry James's book, of which I got a snatch 
at Dr. Stone's. I will keep them until Septem- 
ber. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 93 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Chicopee, August 22, 1855. 
Dear Hig, — I shall be in Chicopee on 
Sunday, and you can pass the day with me ; can 
leave here on Monday at 6.30 and be in Bos- 
ton at 11.30. Surely that princely Nabob Sa 
Muelaus Tin ' would not grudge his faithful 
scribe one demi-Monday more. ... I intreat 
you, in Plato's name, to come. Wheelbarrows 
shall be in readiness at the depot to convey you 
to all the principal parts of the city, and the 
banks and places of business shall all be closed 
during your stay. 

I expect you to spend the Sunday after with 
me at Beverly. 

How are gunnies ? 

Yours in haste, 

C. R. L., Jr. 

P. S. A business man should sign his full 
name. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Trenton, * Sunday, Sept. 24th. 
The part of the business which I am to at- 
tend to at first is the puddling, and I am very 
glad of it, — for it is the first and perhaps the 



94 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

most important of all, and while engaged in 
this I shall have plenty of chances to learn 
everything about the rolling, &c. 

I have n't yet unpacked my trunk, and haven't 
opened a book, except on iron or mathematics, 
since I 've been here. In a week, however, this 
will change. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Trenton, Sept. 30th, 1855. 
Is it not being "rayther hash on a stranger," 
to force upon me a whole page of truisms about 
health, and then leave the last page without a 
word save your name and love, — upon me too, 
the individual, who, moved by the solicitations 
of an anxious Mother, actually swallowed two 
doses of laudanum and two lumps of sugar for 
the purpose of breaking up a cold? Do you 
not know that I respect health and the healthy 
more even than I do morality? I hold that a 
man of forty-five, who is in the healthful pos- 
session of his bodily faculties, must almost of 
necessity be a fine character ; " reading and writ- 
ing come by nature" but not health, — the 
wholesome man, as George Herbert would say, 
the man integer vitae^ must have fought a good 
fight with the climate, with society, with him- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 95 

self, and with his business. Such a man I must 
respect, — he shows a deep sense of at least one 
half of life's demands upon him, — and I shall 
certainly feel a very great self-contempt, if at the 
age of thirty-five I have puddled myself down 
into a miserable nervous " ball " of discomfort 
to self and friends. I mean no more to be a 
domestic porcupine myself than I do to take a 
dragon for a spouse. Nous verrons. As to the 
iron fever, which makes iron our meat and our 
drink, and even our visitor in visions, — my an- 
tidote for that will be a good walk in Pennsyl- 
vania on Sundays, — Shakespeare, Schiller, and 
a wonderfully good little Town Library of about 
1000 vols, and your letters. Trenton itself is 
decidedly a " one horse " city, — the people, as 
far as I have seen them, pleasant enough, but 
with no very " great idees," as the Chicopeans 
say. If I can only lay hands on an intelligent 
German, I shall try to learn to talk the language ; 
it would be of great use to me with our pud- 
dlers, as many of them talk German to one 
another, and only very broken English to the 
« boss." 



LETTERS 
II 

SICKNESS AND TWO YEARS' WANDERING 

Winged sandals for my feet 
I wove of my delay. 
From the shutting mist of death. 
From the failure of the breath, 
I made a battle-horn to blow 
Across the vales of overthrow. 

The Fire Bringers. 



II 

SICKNESS AND TWO YEARS' 
WANDERING 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Trenton, Sunday. 

Such a famous long letter as your last does 
really deserve a grateful answer, but the day is 
like gloomy November, and my spirits, I am 
sorry to say, are not like Niebuhr's, rising as 
the weather grows duller. I really believe I am 
growing old and lazy, — it was hard enough 
sometimes in Chicopee, scraping away at cast- 
iron to believe, as Emerson says, that " To-day 
is a Monarch in disguise," but after tea, when 
I got at Carlyle or Wordsworth or old Sir 
Thomas Browne, I generally found my faith 
grew stronger. Now, however, I have n't the 
spirit to touch a book; even Shakespeare is 
heavy, and Schiller flat: it is not hard work by 
any means, — I have enough to do and of an 
interesting kind and on that score could desire 
nothing better, — it may be homesickness, — 

UCFG. 



100 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

it may be because I am on probation, and, 
babyish though it may seem, I should be glad 
to think it were either of these, anything rather 
than lose an interest in things really high. How- 
ever, I am resolved to give at least an hour a 
day to my ancient Gods, and next week I hope to 
write in better spirits. I often think of the last 
verse of " Balder," — it is certainly very fine.' 

TO HIS MOTHER 
Steamship Cahawba, March 2d, 1856.' 

It is the 2d day of March and there is a very 
strong east wind blowing, — but an east wind 
within 200 miles of Havana barely succeeds in 
keeping the thermometer down to 90° and its 
softness is more deHcious than anything Boston 
ever dreamed of. It is something like a June 
day in Cambridge, only for the Green we have 
the Blue, and such a Blue. It makes one feel 
that homesickness which Novalis says is the 
soul of all philosophy, — and yet such a selfish 
state does it produce, that you could not think 
of wishing your best friend here to enjoy it with 
you, — the idea would be too absurd, — it is 
all-absorbing and complete in itself, — three or 
four years at sea would be better than three or 
four years under a barrel which C. recommends. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL loi 

TO HIS MOTHER 

New Orleans, St. Charles Hotel, 
April 6th, 1856. 

I shall say very little about my past trip, but 
a good deal about my plans. I cannot tell you 
how kind Mr. Forbes has been, not more about 
money than every other thing — had not the 
bad management on Southern R. R.'s kept us 
for the last half hour dodging about after bag- 
gage, &c., I am certain we should not have sepa- 
rated without one cry. He says he considers 
me engaged to him when I come back, — and 
I would willingly lose a year, if I were sure of 
being able then to live in Boston. I am going 
to try. I have thought a good deal at different 
times of engineering in Missouri. . . . Mr. 
Forbes advises my not settling in the West if I 
can help it, but thinks from two to five years 
would be good there: so do I, ^at the end of 
a year, I can't stay with him. 

All this is old talk with both of us, I know, 
but as it occupies me noWy in deciding what to 
do to-morrow^ I write it. There sails on Mon- 
day or Tuesday for Trieste a fine ship of 800 
tons — one year old — belonging to a N. Y. 
& Liverpool line of Packets, but sent here be- 



102 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

cause freights are dull there. Of course she 
has very sumptuous accommodations for pas- 
sengers, in which she differs, Mr. Whitney tells 
me, from the usual class of vessels that go to 
the Mediterranean with cotton. Mr. W. also 
speaks highly of her Captain, and I like the 
looks of both him and his mate ; her name is 
" Wm. F. Schmidt." This tempts me to the 
Mediterranean. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Afternoon, April 6th. 
Well, my dear Mother, I have decided to 
sail to-morrow Eastward. . . . To-morrow morn- 
ing at eight my trunks go on board, and we 
shall go down stream at night — when you get 
this I hope to be out of the Gulf — and now 
for directions about my letter of credit, &c. 

The vessel, as I said, is going to Trieste, 
but will probably touch at Gibraltar — if she 
does, I stop there. ... In Mobile I met my 
classmate McLemore, who returned two months 
ago from Europe and who had travelled on foot 
through the Pyrenees down to below Madrid. 
He said that from the middle of May to the 
middle of September the Pyrenees were a great 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 103 

deal frequented by such people as go to Lenox 
or Brattleboro' with us ; he always found good 
quarters and pleasant people — saw or heard 
nothing of robbers — needed no guide, the roads 
are then so much travelled — but advised me 
to go on horseback rather than on foot, as being 
little, if at all, more expensive. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Gibraltar, Tuesday, May 27. 

Well, my dear Mother, here I sit at the foot 
of Hercules* pillar, sucking oranges and fatten- 
ing on British beer. I discovered my new 
world about two o'clock on Sunday. . . . 

Our passage was not quick, and I lacked the 
excitement of clipper-sailing, — but the weather 
was fair, the sea smooth and the ship crank 
and easy. We lay four days on the bar at the 
mouth of the Mississippi, and for thirteen days 
more were drifting about the Gulf of Mexico 
in a dead calm. 

I have worked the Captain's observations 
for him almost every day and have occasionally 
wielded a quadrant myself, appearing on the 
quarter-deck with an antique instrument that 
might have served Ulysses. 

From Hatteras down to the Western Islands 



104 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

I might have been seen during about six hours 
of each day promenading the deck . . . always 
followed in a most serious manner by little Mr. 
Pig, who was also making his first voyage and 
who manifested his disapproval of sea life by 
an incessant grunting. When tired of viewing 
my own soul, I would attend a woman's rights 
meeting among the hens, or endeavor to con- 
vince the Captain of the truth of the great doc- 
trine of Compensation, or go forward and amuse 
myself with the remarks of the black crew. 

On the whole, I am very glad I did not go 
to China.* I have grown fonder, far fonder of 
the blue sea than ever, but have not grown 
fond of shipboard, — am decidedly not sorry 
to have seen that little world and lived that life, 
— but hope that I have now died to it forever 
— shall be content henceforth to be a "creeping 
thing" on terra firma. 

I do not entirely understand what you mean 
by your remarks about " praeter-natural fears." 
I have been fussy and fidgety and have per- 
haps been unnecessarily careful about exposure, 
but as to fear about myself, — why, as Emerson 
somewhere says, I "sail with God the seas," — 
my only fear now is that which drove the tyrant 
of Samos to throw his ring into the sea, — I am 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 105 

frightened and oppressed by the terrible good 
fortune which always has attended me, by the 
kindnesses which I have done nothing to earn 
and which I can never repay. 

For Heaven's sake don't feel anxious about 
my enjoying myself. I am in an agony of en- 
joyment all the time now. I am as stout as 
Henry and as strong as Samson, — cough once 
or twice in a week, and shall soon get over my 
cold, or the irritation in my throat, in this de- 
licious weather. 

TO HIS SISTER ANNA 
Gibraltar, King's Arms, May 28, 1856. 
I wish you could have been with me in a long 
walk I took this morning, out to the end of the 
point. The bay of Gibraltar runs up for a mile 
or two with the land at right angles to the 
Strait, — so that, whatever be the direction of 
the street you are in, there is always a landscape 
with a bit of sunny blue water in the foreground, 
and behind, either the bold rocky pillar or the 
African coast or some distant peak in Spain. 
Out towards the end of the Rock, in the Gov- 
ernment gardens and on the ramparts, you, of 
course, get the whole sweep of the Strait and 
bay at once, but I think I prefer the glimpses 



io6 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

got down the steep and narrow streets through 
a vista of little yellow houses, all with flowers 
at the windows and on the roofs, here and there 
an orange tree or graceful young poplar hang- 
ing over a garden wall, — with perhaps a troop 
of donkeys carrying water-casks, or a flock of 
goats following the bell-wether from door to 
door to be milked, — or a knot of solemn white- 
turbaned Moors, or mild looking young Turks 
with fez and mustache from the man-of-war in 
the harbor. Everywhere, of course, is seen the 
British redcoat, — you see them planted solitary 
upon the rampart, or on the lines, each with 
his red or yellow mat of grass cloth stretched 
above him, sheltered like some delicate exotic 
from the sun, — you see them set in rows in the 
parade ground as hot and uncomfortable look- 
ing as tiger-lilies, — and you continually meet 
them marching with music through the streets. 
The ugly Saxon face is here seen in perfection ; 
the handsome type with the broad forehead and 
blue eyes rarely met, except among the officers. 
I am sure, I hope by this time, you are on 
your feet enjoying the early summer. I hate 
to think of your lying there while I am having 
so much and so various enjoyment out here. 
However, — Good-bye. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 107 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Seville, June 16, 1856. 

Hola, my dear Mother, after ten days' travel- 
ling here I am again alone on the banks of the 
Guadalquivir, the Moslem's " big river " — I 
have eaten of the snows of the Sierra Nevada, 
have plucked a myrtle twig in the courtyards 
of the Alhambra, have drunk from the fountain 
in the grand Mosque at Cordova, and am now 
getting a little homesick in the finest city in 
Spain, — for the Spaniards say " See Seville and 
die." 

For a week after landing in this old world, I 
stretched my legs up and down the sides of 
Gibraltar enjoying everything, — the exercise, 
the weather, the views, the faces of men, — yea, 
even the fife and drum. A traveller soon tires 
of the place, but I am fresh, and, in my land- 
sick state, with the aid of the fair, the review, 
&c., I got on famously. After seven days, how- 
ever, I began to think more seriously of my 
solitary trip to Granada or Cadiz. I attacked 
our consul with questions, and was myself ex- 
posed to the pertinacious assaults of a youth 
called Jacob, who is in the habit of attending 
American shentlemen to Malaga and Granada, 



io8 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and will be mosht happy to accompany me if 
I wish a companion. Still I am loath to start. I 
cannot help expecting letters from the Professor 
or from Ned, so for two days more I lengthen 
my breath in the steep walks about the Rock or 
amuse myself watching the officers at cricket, — 
keeping as much from the hotel as possible to 
avoid a burr-like Yankee Captain whose vessel 
was in port repairing. He stuck like Socrates, 
and was very fond of discussing in a loud un- 
dertone the possibility of a war with England 
and the probable result. At length, on Wednes- 
day, after watching three regiments land who had 
seen hard fighting in the Crimea, I was wait- 
ing for my dinner in the coffee-room, when in 
walked a couple of gentlemen of between thirty- 
five and forty, with very remarkable hats on, 
hats evidently from some hotter climate, — one 
was a bald-pated, rosy-faced, rather precise little 
Englishman, the other larger, thinner, and very 
brown, looking so much like an American that 
I addressed him, and we arranged to dine to- 
gether. They proved to be Australians on the 
way to England, who had stopped over one 
steamer at Gibraltar and were meditating a ten 
days' trip to Granada and back. We liked one 
another at dinner, I mentioned my plans and 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 109 

we agreed to join, — but alas ! it was then half 
past four, and the last ferry boat across the bay- 
to the steamer Tharsis left at half past five. Still 
I would try it, so I shifted the needful raiment 
into the two bags, got a porter, rushed up to 
the consul with my passport, begged letters 
from him to two or three friends in Malaga, and 
reached the ferry boat just as the screw began 
to turn. But my friends the Englishmen were 
not on board ; perhaps they had gone earlier 
and were already at the Tharsis, — so I kept up 
my spirits very well, in spite of a heavy " black 
Levanter " which had come up within half an 
hour, — but on board the steamer it was no 
better, not a soul spoke English, and making 
up my mind not to go farther than Malaga 
alone, I turned in on a sofa and was soon asleep. 
I woke up dreaming I heard English voices, and, 
sure enough, there were my two companions. 
They had crossed with no little risk in a small 
sail-boat, though the storm was so violent that 
it delayed the steamer for three hours. Of 
course, as it was chiefly on my account they 
risked it, I set them down for trumps, — and a 
bottle of Valdepenas, Don Quixote's favourite 
wine, made them forget their ducking. We 
reached Malaga about daybreak, spent the day 



no LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

there marching about the town, and started for 
Granada at about ten o'clock p. m. on top of 
the diHgence. After a very rough and hilly ride 
we entered the "vega" or plain of Granada 
about noon, and descended from our lofty seats 
at three, very tired and very dusty. Every one 
tells us we are very lucky in coming just at this 
time, for all over the country there have been 
very heavy rains till within a few weeks, and 
now vines and olives are at their greenest. You 
know Granada is the city of fountains, and after 
our ride, its walks (Alameda) were delicious to 
see. But the greatest beauty of Granada (better 
even than the Alhambra) is the view from the 
Moorish tower, — we watched the sunset from 
there on Sunday, — underneath and around is 
the plain (about eight miles across) looking not 
unlike the valley of the Connecticut as seen 
from Mt. Holyoke when the corn is greenest, 
but more beautifully sprinkled with clumps of 
trees and little white homesteads. The sun goes 
down over a group of hills, in the midst of 
which, as they tell us, is the bridge where 
Columbus was overtaken by Isabella's messen- 
ger calling him back to discover a new world. 
To the east, high up, lies the Sierra Nevada, 
still white halfway down its sides, the summit, 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL iii 

Muley Hassan, just tipped with sunlight, and 
the rest of a delicious pink or purple, — south- 
ward is a dark little hill from which Boabdil 
took his last look at the " vega," — it is "el ul- 
timo suspiro del Moro," — and towards the north 
is a remnant of Roman handiwork called by the 
Moors " Omar's chair." We found in Granada 
that by hurrying a little we could visit both 
Cordova and Seville and be back by the 14th 
at Cadiz, so we left on the diligence early 
Monday morning for Jaen and Baylen, which 
last village we reached at midnight. In the 
morning we made inquiries about the diligence 
and made our first acquaintance with the " cosas 
de Espana " — roundabout roads are, of course, 
excusable, but the delays and the want of 
method are intolerable to one in a hurry, and 
worst of all is the constant lo no se of the offi- 
cials. The Spaniards shrug their shoulders and 
smile at all this, and so, of course, did I, but my 
companions were anxious to reach Cadiz by the 
end of a week, — and here we were told that it 
might be a fortnight before we got a seat to 
Cordova. Our best move seemed to be to take 
a stray coach for twelve miles to Andujar, and 
thence to Cordova on horses. We left at three 
expecting to reach Andujar about seven, but no. 



112 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

it was fairly nine, too late for horses that night, 
they tell us, but they will have them at the 
door the next morning at four ; so we make 
arrangements to be called at three, and after wait- 
ing two hours for our dinner, we get to a bed of 
fleas and mosquitoes at half past eleven. The 
next day, at half past five the horses appear, two 
of them without stirrups ; this will never do, 
so another half hour is spent in tying stirrups 
together with a string passed under the blankets 
and over the broad pack saddle, then we start, 
and, with the exception of an occasional drink 
of water and a two hours' rest, we do not leave 
the saddle till half past eleven at night: the 
distance was forty-two miles and we allowed ten 
hours for it, but we did not understand the 
common Spanish horse, — even Mr. Everard, 
who has been used to ride six hours a day for 
the last fifteen years, was fairly fagged out. It 
did us no harm however; — we slept deep into 
Thursday and got up as fresh as ever, and hav- 
ing by good luck secured seats for Seville the 
next day, we had nothing to mar our enjoyment 
of the Grand Mosque. On Friday at nine, we 
started for Seville and reached here on Saturday 
at precisely noon, . . . 

At Cordova, I felt no desire to stop longer. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 113 

but here I should like to stay a month, — there 
is no building like the Alhambra or the Mosque, 
but the Cathedral is very beautiful, there are 
scores of fine churches, &c., and the streets 
(and I gladly live amid the real) are full of life, 
very bright, and the light of the sun in the 
principal streets always softened by the awn- 
ings stretched across under the eaves of the 
buildings, so that, even at midday, one enjoys 
them, — 'and then here, too, are more than 
thirty beautiful Murillos, almost all in light, 
dry rooms, which I can visit conscientiously, 
and not in damp Cathedrals which I can only 
sneak into for a few minutes and then must 
leave. Murillo lived here and died here, you 
know. The people, too, I enjoy quite as much 
now as the day I landed ; then I was pleased 
with the mere sight of faces and amused with 
the novelty of the dresses, but it soon grew in 
some sort painful to keep meeting man after 
man of whose character I could guess nothing, 
— all my old physiognomes were quite useless, 
and I felt most unpleasantly how ignorant I 
must be of both Greek and Roman ; every 
day, however, I have improved, and now I feel 
almost as much at home in the " Calle de la 
Sierpe " as in Washington Street. The most 



114 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

disagreeable feature in all these Spanish towns 
is the beggary ; at every turn some disgusting 
specimen is exhibiting himself. If I were a rich 
American, I should certainly hire some monarch 
to travel with me, for then they are cleared from 
the streets and naught unpleasant meets the eye 
of royalty. I am growing much attached to 
the Spaniards: they are so merry, contented, 
and good natured, — so moderate, too, in their 
habits and desires, and yet so splendidly proud. 
They cannot be very idle, I am sure, for be- 
tween Granada and Andujar there was not an 
inch of ground where the soil was not sure to 
be washed away the first freshet, which did not 
have its vine, its fig tree, its olive, or its pome- 
granate, — olives are far the most common, — 
fences are not used, and in many places as far 
as. the eye can see there rises hillock after hil- 
lock covered with olives more thickly than 
Wellington Hill with apples. The tree by itself 
is not striking, — but when mixed with vine 
and walnut trees, the eflfect is beautiful. The 
Spaniards do not seem to be a humorous peo- 
ple, though Don Quixote belongs to them, — 
they are lively and easily pleased with trifles, — 
you have no idea of the smiles excited by my 
companions' hats, — every city we went to was 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 115 

convulsed, — when we entered the bull-ring 
yesterday afternoon for more than five minutes 
10,000 out of the 15,000 present turned to 
stare at us, and we were greeted with showers 
of jokes which I was unable to interpret (by the 
way, I am interpreter, — neither of my com- 
panions speaking a word of Spanish). One 
word more about bull-fighting, and then I must 
finish. It is some'ut cruel certainly, still I 
rather like it ; it is very exciting, and requires 
great nerve, agility, courage, and mind on the 
part of the torreras — their cerebella were all 
small, their frontal developments splendid. I 
shall start on Wednesday for Cadiz, and be at 
Gibraltar Saturday. 

I grow stronger and feel better already than 
when I landed (more like my old self in mind 
and spirits, I mean), but still I know that this 
rapid travelling does not make such quick work 
of my disease as would a few weeks on foot or 
horseback in the mountains, — first Pyrenees, 
then Alps in August. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Genoa, June 30, 1856. 

Really, my dear Mother, I think it was rather 
a " tempting of Providence " for Columbus to 



Ii6 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

go about to discover a New World, when he 
had such a good old one as this to take root in : 
if I had been born in his old house here, I 
doubt if I should have left my mamma. There 
is at present a dispute between the authorities 
and the citizens, as to whether the square in 
front of his birthplace shall be occupied by a 
monument or a railway station. Christopher, 
I think, would "go in" for the railway. But I 
am forgetting to tell you how I came here. 
I reached Gibraltar from Cadiz on Saturday 
(21st). The only boat for some time was one 
to Genoa that afternoon, which I took, and 
after five days' homesickness was landed here 
yesterday morning. 

And now of my last purchase — by Castor 
and Pollux ! I have bought a pony, a Sar- 
dinian pony with the true grin about his upper 
lip, showing that he has fed on the herb. To 
this I was led by divers considerations, — it 
certainly is better (/. e. pleasanter and healthier) 
than travelling through the Alps per diligence, 
with my heavy trunk. Walking is equally 
pleasant and equally invigorating, but I catch 
cold rather easily and should like, in this varia- 
ble up and down country, to take more cloth- 
ing than a knapsack will hold. If I walk, or 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 117 

send baggage round by stage to this place and 
that, as I am likely to want it, the total would 
soon be as great as the expense of the horseback 
trip, — I think greater. Therefore my trunk is 
going to the Customs House at Geneva for the 
next two months and I am going to push about 
the Alps. 

I am in tremendous spirits at the idea of 
Ned, mountain air and all, — I am really gain- 
ing breadth and strength, but hair still too short 
for a photograph, and feel as if I could carry 
clothes enough to clothe a Dutchman ; but the 
knapsack won't be overcrowded, and saddle- 
bags take the surplus and make sure work 
about taking cold. Pony is bought with saddle 
and bridle all on him, which saves something. 
He is a dark bay, and I mean to call him 
" Jip " for a former Scotch friend of ours. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

St. Gall, July 27, 1856. 
The last time I wrote I think I was just 
starting for the Alps on the back of a horse 
called Gyp, but I soon found that the moun- 
tain air agreed so well with the flies that they 
made nothing of eating a cold horse for lunch- 
eon, — so for ten days more or less, I rode by 



ii8 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

night and slept by day, not a pleasant way of 
travelling, where one is alone and where one 
wishes to enjoy the scenery, — so when I 
reached Geneva and met Ned, I decided to sell 
the equine. From Genoa, I came up through 
Turin, Susa, Mont Cenis, Modane, Chambery, 
Aix, and Annecy, through the very midst of 
Savoy and Piedmont in fact, and as they speak 
there one very wretched French-Italian patois, 
and I speak another equally wretched, you may 
imagine I had a rather funny time of it, — still, 
it was quite worrying sometimes. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Vevey, Sept. lo, 1856. 
I have been very anxiously expecting a letter 
from you for two months. Are you going to 
Kansas ? You 'd better, I think, unless things 
look brighter. Do not you or John sail till you 
hear from me again. I am only waiting for an- 
other steamer to decide what I shall do. I think 
it will be Kansas. Don't breathe a word of this 
to any one but John. I have kept perfectly 
dark even with Ned and cousin Frank Lowell. 
I am waiting awhile at Vevey to make up my 
mind calmly, and hoped to hear from you be- 
fore the closing of the mail for U. S. A.' 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 119 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Vevey, Sept. 16, 1856. 
Not a word from home since my last. Do 
not, however, be influenced by my letter of the 
loth. I shall not come home yet, but shall be in 
Florence after October 20th to welcome Johnny 
on his arrival. Whether afterward to Egypt 
depends, of course, upon the weather. I have 
written, however, to our Minister at Constan- 
tinople to make sure of the best assistance, in 
case I go by the Nile. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Milan, Sept. 28, 1856. 

Dear Mother, — It is Sunday, and your two 
letters which 1 found here yesterday deserve a 
good, long, homesick Sunday answer, but to- 
day, I am not homesick ; it is gloomy and rainy 
outdoors, but I feel uncommonly happy, — my 
only fear, dear woman, is that my plans may 
make you unhappy. You say I have failed 
— true; but on my long voyage this seemed 
to me a mark of the gods' peculiar favour, — to 
those whom they love they send early warnings. 
Better to fail now, when the choice of my career 
is my own, than two years hence when my ties 



I20 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

would have been more binding. But how to 
choose? Again I say I have failed at the right 
moment. You know I always assured the girls 
that it was not on their account that I went 
into business, and it was not: nor was it on 
yours. You were successful, and that is its own 
reward. I certainly would not have worked 
ten or fifteen years to give you the largest for- 
tune in Boston. But with dear Father it was 
quite a different case, — to him my success 
would have been an immense gratification, — 
this was why I was eager to go to China. I 
even felt, dear Mother, as if I should gain 
in this way as a scholar and critic. The best 
cheese {stracchino) is made from the cows who 
arrive in the plain of Lombardy tired {stracchi) 
by their march down from the Alps. I made 
a God of Niebuhr, and thought that action 
was necessary to complete my character, — and 
that the evenings would be longer than whole 
days of leisure. But when, last December, it 
became clear to me that these evenings could 
no longer exist to me for many years, and that 
I must content myself for the future with a 
winter day's work, — by Jove, the question 
became a difl!^erent one. At first I took a dog- 
gedly blue view of the matter, and resolved, in 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 121 

spite of my Chicopee experience, to swear off 
from books resolutely. But on my 21st birth- 
day I got from Father a dear, tender letter 
which quite changed my plans. I never can 
read it now without crying, and from that 
moment I resolved that I would take a good 
long time to recruit, and if it still seemed 
clear that my health had need of my evenings, 
I knew that I should have your hearts, if 
not your judgments, on my side, if I made 
up my mind to come back to Cambridge and 
teach pupils in the old blue room, earning 
all I could and studying and strengthening 
mind and body to take hold in five or six 
years of that model school which Sanborn 
and Potter and I and so many others are so 
anxious for ; with either Sanborn or Potter 
as principal, I know I could make a good 
auxiliary. 

To most of the many friends who have been 
so kind to me, I can yet repay, perhaps, my 
debt, — if not to them, why, to their children. 
Uncle Pat, Mr. Forbes, Mr. Ward, — all have 
young lads coming to college soon, to whom I 
can sometimes perhaps be of use, — at any rate 
I shall trust as usual to the Gods. I suppose 
Aunt E. would hardly confide Cabot to me as 



122 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

a pupil, — at any rate I shall spend this winter 
here in Rome and spend grandmother's money. 
I did think seriously, a fortnight since, of passing 
the winter in camp in Kansas (not settling there 
of course), but have decided not to on many 
accounts. 

TO HIS FATHER 

Milan, Sept. 29, 1856. 

Dear Father, — Here I am in a city about 
the size of Boston, — it seems a little odd to be 
entirely idle in such a place, but time goes very 
quickly and pleasantly. I have not been to the 
Gallery yet or the Library. I pass the day 
walking about the city, dodging into churches 
during the showers which continually fall at this 
season. ... I am dipping a little into ItaHan, 
particularly the oaths, and have amused Eckly 
a good deal by the gravity with which I intro- 
duce the "Corpo di Baccho," &c., into all our 
traffic with fruit dealers. Milan, you know, is 
not a bit of a sight-seeing place, and I like it 
the better for that. The only antiquities it 
boasts of are a solitary Corinthian column in 
front of one of the churches, and a row of pillars 
(ruins of the baths of Hercules) which stand 
now in the very centre of a crowded thorough- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 123 

fare, — it is really sad to see the poor things 
thrust out thus among a crowd of black-coated 
Milanese and jaunty Austrian soldiers. These 
soldiers, by the way, are to me the greatest 
attraction of the city, — I like them, in spite of 
myself, and go out to see them drilled on the 
Champs de Mars. My plan when I last wrote 
to you was to come into Italy with Furness, 
but that I gave up. 

Last Wednesday I at length crossed the 
Pennine Alps and descended upon the great 
plain of Lombardy by the Simplon Pass (Napo- 
leon's wonder road). I met a young English- 
man at Brieg and walked with him to the 
summit ; there we were wrapped up in a thick 
cloud (a very permeating garment when the 
wind blows), and as some travellers mounting 
from Italy told us that about an hour below 
they had emerged from a steady rain, we estab- 
lished ourselves cosily in the coupe and thus 
entered la bella Italia just at nightfall. Hanni- 
bal, I believe, led his troops up a high peak and 
in a " nit spitch " pointed out the great Trans- 
padana Campus: it was quite unnecessary — 
the first chestnut bough they broke on their 
march would have inspired them, though they 
had been blacks from Central Africa. Even 



124 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

cooped up inside a diligence, our lantern throw- 
ing its light only on a bit of splashy road and a 
dripping postilion, bobbing up and down on 
a dripping post-horse, — even then, one felt 
the difference, — Switzerland is great, but Italy 
is, — Italy. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Venice, Oct. 20, 1856. 
I am enjoying myself so very intensely that 
I should find it hard even to tell you of it, 
much more to write. Could you sit down and 
write if you had made a new friend to-day, 
a friend from among the sweetest, the purest, 
the most deep-eyed of the earth, — and yet I 
have, — I have seen a face by Giorgione for 
which Byron said " one might go mad because 
it cannot walk out of its frame." Yesterday, 
too, how could I write ? I had just come from 
a picture by Tintoretto, a Venus and Bacchus, 
which, as Mrs. Tappan truly said, I might 
almost take as my aim, my ideal in life — and 
certainly it did give me a push, a swing, which 
I think I shall never entirely lose. The figure 
of Venus fills the same place, in my idea of life, 
that the Venus of Milo does in my religion.' 
And you must remember, my dear Mother, that 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 125 

when we are seeing such pictures we always 
think and talk of how much, and how, you and 
some others would enjoy them. I saw on Satur- 
day a Faith by Titian, which I enjoyed wholly 
through Aunt E.'s eyes, so that I must always 
feel as if she had seen it, — it looked like 
Lucy, but Lucy as she ought to be, — a radiant 
face and a face that " knows no shadow of turn- 
ing." And then at Milan, twice every day of 
the seventeen I was there, I used to wander 
into that great solemn Duomo and think of 
you, or the girls, or Aunt E., and of the unity 
it would give your lives or the lives of any 
women to have such a place to pass a daily 
hour in, — really one cannot write after such 

days, — if one were "chipper" like 

one could easily say it, — but one is not "chip- 
per" exactly. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Florence, Nov. 27, 1856. 
It is Thanksgiving day, dear Mother, and 

though I know has just dropped a long 

letter into the post office, I am actually writing 
you one also, — and for what? to thank you 

for your book ! ! ' will you believe it? Yes, 

lent it to me soon after she reached here, — 



126 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and though, of course, opposed to It on prin- 
ciple, I have really enjoyed looking over it 
extremely. How the great men do stand out 
among the merely able, or the merely earnest 
men : Bacon and Goethe, by the side of Henry 
Taylor and Carlyle ; even Emerson and Wil- 
liam Humboldt by the side of Helps and 
Kingsley, &c. Rather discouraging to us mod- 
erate people. I have also to thank you and 
Father for the two very kind letters which 1 
have received within two days. I had rather 
dreaded to receive the first, but found you even 
kinder and wiser than I had fancied. I am en- 
deavoring to follow Sydney Smith's advice and 
take none but short views of life, but find it 
rather hard. You are entirely right in all you 
say about an active life being the thing for me, 
unless I had changed my spots a good deal. 
You know how I felt about going back to 
Mr. Forbes unless I could work as many hours 
and as closely as any of them. When I came 
out of Switzerland I doubted if I should in 
June, — now I feel differently, — at any rate I 
can go out West. 

I am having a most delightful time here, 
walking, talking Italian, and reading. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 127 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Florence, Dec. 4, 1856. 

Dearest Boy, — It is you who need a com- 
panion, it seems, and not 1. Remember this 
and make your plans accordingly. You need 
distraction, perhaps work, perhaps amusement. 
You can best tell, but remember that here am 
I with a stock of cheerfulness so great that my 
spirits verge upon the idiotic, and for anything 
south of the Alps, dear fellow, I am entirely 
at your disposal. . . . 

I decided to spend the winter here, and go to 
Rome in the middle of February. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Florence, Jan. 15, '57. 

Dearest Mother, — I am sorry to find by 
the constant tone of your letters how much you 
had set your hearts on my going to Egypt. 
Really 1 got the best advice of all my best 
friends here, and it was all in favour of Florence. 

By February ist, Spring may be expected : 
for the Carnival the days must be fine, — even 
January, you know, looks both ways, and last 
year the willows had begun to swell and bud 
by this time. 



128 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Anna asked me to write her an account of 
Florence ; but how can I ? what is there left 
to say? has not Mr. Hilliard exhausted the 
subject ? / have a most superb ignorance of the 
history of Art and Artists, and grope my way 
about among old Christian paintings with an 
exemplary blindness. I do not find that my 
love for the Giottos and the Fra Angelicos in- 
creases as I become better acquainted with them. 
They are, of course, exceedingly interesting, as 
they throw a new light on the history and liter- 
ature of the age in which they were painted, — 
it is like travelling among a new race all whose 
beliefs and motives to action are different, — so 
different from mine, indeed, that I stare at them 
with curiosity, but without sympathy. Even 
Raphael's Madonnas / do not enjoy at all. I 
can perfectly beheve that many people. Cousin 

per esempiOf enjoy them exceedingly, and 

feel really happier and better and stronger after 
seeing them and the Peruginos. But it is not 
so with me. I would rather have Michael An- 
gelo*s Three Fates than any Madonna I shall 
ever see, — it is to me the most instructive pic- 
ture I have met (except one, perhaps, by Tin- 
toretto) — the old crone in the background, 
holding the distaff and sending forth to all 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 129 

eternity one monotonous, unheeding shriek, is 
crushing, — she is better than a Greek tragedy. 
The Gothic spirit, as they call it, seems to me 
suited to music and architecture, but not to 
painting and sculpture, — these are too positive, 
— one wants perfection, not aspiration. How- 
ever, Art is by no means my province, it may 

have unsettled Mr. , but to me every day 

adds a new conviction that my road is in quite 
another direction, — and, oddly enough, this 
gives me a new sort of pleasure in visiting gal- 
leries. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

FiRENZE, Jan, 27, 1857. 

I was terribly ground by your note about 
Switzerland. For God's sake come along now 
and bring Stephen with you, leaving the Cor- 
nice till later in the season. Do come. We will 
go to Pisa, Lucca, Pistoia, and Prato on our 
way up, making an excursion of three or four 
days on foot, if you please, and then from 
Florence we can make a trip to Volterra, being 
gone three days more. By the 15th, I hope to 
start for Rome. Mr. Perkins is going, and his 
carriage has at least two spare places. My plan, 
however, is to go on horseback, changing our 



130 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

horses at every post, and passing the night at 
the inns where the Perkinses stop, thus secur- 
ing dry and warm rooms. I think it probable 
that Mrs. Tappan and party will go at the same 
time, taking vettura. We shall be at least eight 
days on the road, seeing all the pictures and 
the ruins, Roman and Etruscan. Does n't this 
tempt Stephen ? 

I have been obliged to postpone my Sicilian 
tour until March ; shall stay in Rome until 
then, chiefly making excursions on the Cam- 
pagna. 

N, B. — In Marseilles ... be sure to get 
for me Fresnel's " Researches on Light." 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Rome, April 2, '57. 
Dearest Mother, — I have entirely decided 
to stay abroad another winter, — not that I am 
not well enough now, but because I can be bet- 
ter, the Doctor says. You, I see, are much more 
afraid of my growing selfish than of my becom- 
ing unfitted for business. It is a selfish enough 
life I am leading, I know, but I do not forget 
that I am daily giving new bonds to aid others, 
— if it is Grandmother's " privilege and office " 
to help me now, it will be my awful duty to repay 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 131 

it hereafter. The Gods will hold me respon- 
sible and I am too superstitious to provoke the 
avenging Goddess. Good-bye.' 

TO HIS FATHER 

Rome, May 6, 1857. 

What a splendid move it is, this trip to Vir- 
ginia ! I hope you will not give up your plan 
of bringing them back by land, and to crown the 
whole, I hope you will all three take a fancy to 
Virginia and decide you would like to migrate. 
If we are going to leave Massachusetts, let us 
go to Virginia. It would be far better than the 
West — we should continue to live in the last 
half of the 19th century and not fall back a 
generation, as most Western men do. It seems 
to me that eight or ten years from now, say 
when I am thirty years old, the field in Vir- 
ginia will be quite as great as in the West — 
I feel now what Uncle James said last year, I 
shall have to fight shy of all temptations to 
very great activity until I am thirty.^ Every 
little over-exertion I feel much more markedly 
than quite a sudden change of weather. How- 
ever, let us hear what Mother reports: perhaps 
after another year I shall do best to stay in 
Boston. 



132 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO J. C. BANCROFT 

Rome, May 7, 1857. 

My dear Johnny, — How the Gods do love 
to tease us homunculi occasionally ! Last Feb- 
ruary, when Henry [Higginson] joined me 
in Florence, we laid our heads together to get 
you across the water ; as a preliminary stand- 
point we concocted an extensive plan of migra- 
tion, you and Jim Savage and Henry and I 
were all to move to Virginia or somewhere — 
we were to cultivate the vine and the olive, 
to think none but high thoughts, to speak 
none but weighty words, and to become, in short, 
the worthies of our age : the programme of 
your life being thus settled, we could urge with 
much convincingness the importance — nay, 
the necessity, of two or three years' foreign 
travel to stock your mind, my dear fellow, with 
ideas and images which in our hallowed inter- 
course with Nature were to develop into charac- 
ter. It was charmingly reasoned, and you could 
not refuse to come, when — pop ! down came 
a little bombshell of fact into our castle, you 
were going to Surinam as soon as the ice melted, 
by Jove ! — the contrast was irresistibly comic. 
As long as the Gods send you such chances as 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 133 

that, I shall hold my tongue ; if you have more 
such arrows in your quiver, shoot away, and 
don't read what I shall write on the next page, 

— remember that it is all based on the hypothesis 
that you have not yet attained to the " one 
equal temper of heroic mind " in your plans 
and aspirations for the future. 

Come out here, not with the intention of de- 
voting yourself to any art, or to all of them, but 
simply that you may become acquainted with 
yourself, — come out to ^^ sfogare " yourself — 
it is astounding how the smoke clears away 
when one is here looking at the whole concern 
from afar, — come for your own sake and for 
us who love you. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Florence, June 4, 1857. 

Next to the sea, give me mountains for com- 
panionship, — it is the Sabine and the Alban 
hills that give the Campagna its chief charm, 
its never-ceasing variety, — my pleasantest days 
in Rome were passed on top of the baths 
of Caracalla or in front of St. John Lateran, 
watching the hourly changes of the landscape, 

— the Villa Albani is another lovely spot to 
" loafe." I went there with Mrs. Tappan, and 



134 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

we agreed that you would enjoy a day there 
more than the finest picture or statue in Rome 
or Florence. Oh, if you could only sit and 
sew, and now and then look up and breathe in 
the beauty of the Campagna. 

I hope the newspaper accounts of fearful 
snowstorms through Virginia and the South 
have been exaggerated, — Hatty only speaks of 
the patches on the Blue Ridge and the tops 
of the Alleghanies ; from Rome you see snow on 
the Apennines all through the summer, I believe. 
And now, dear Mother, if your visit has given 
you any idea of the life there, I wish to know 
if you think that A. and H. ever could enjoy it. 
1 gather from your letters and from Anna's that 
there is sometimes serious talk in the family of 
leaving Massachusetts and moving South or 
West. I trust it has not come to that yet. You 
might enjoy it, but for the rest it would not be 
the thing at all. Emigration, unless in a com- 
pany large enough to be its own society, is not the 
thing for any young women. I have seen some- 
thing of life in our small villages, — something 
of mechanics and their wives, and I have heard 
from others a good deal about farmers* wives, 
and I know no harder lot than to be thrown 
among them for society. In France, the women 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 135 

in the middle and lower classes, in the cities at 
least, are said to be much superior to the men; 
in the United States it is quite the reverse, the 
women are small-minded and mean-minded be- 
yond belief. I cannot bear the thought of your 
going West. At first, Virginia pleased me bet- 
ter; I knew that there were cultivated people in 
the State and thought there might be friendly 
intercourse with them; but the more I read, the 
more I hear, of the state of feeling at present 
existing, the more convinced I am that as long 
as the question of slavery there is undecided, 
free settlers, however cultivated, will be under 
a taboo, — may even be in danger from per- 
sonal attack from the vagabond whites. As 
visitors, you are courteously received; as set- 
tlers, you would find things changed. Nothing 
would induce me to expose the girls to it. And, 
after all, why talk of emigration ? Hatty's cough 
is already gone, and if it is on my account, I 
hope at the end of another year to find all 
climates alike ; the work is as we choose to 
make it, the West is no less under pressure 
than the East. Even if I have to go away, it 
will be but for a few years, — or let us say for 
five or ten, — it is certainly better than having 
me in China, is it not? Individually, I should 



134 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

we agreed that you would enjoy a day there 
more than the finest picture or statue in Rome 
or Florence. Oh, if you could only sit and 
sew, and now and then look up and breathe in 
the beauty of the Campagna. 

I hope the newspaper accounts of fearful 
snowstorms through Virginia and the South 
have been exaggerated, — Hatty only speaks of 
the patches on the Blue Ridge and the tops 
of the Alleghanies ; from Rome you see snow on 
the Apennines all through the summer, I believe. 
And now, dear Mother, if your visit has given 
you any idea of the life there, I wish to know 
if you think that A. and H. ever could enjoy it. 
I gather from your letters and from Anna's that 
there is sometimes serious talk in the family of 
leaving Massachusetts and moving South or 
West. I trust it has not come to that yet. You 
might enjoy it, but for the rest it would not be 
the thing at all. Emigration, unless in a com- 
pany large enough to be its own society, is not the 
thing for any young women. I have seen some- 
thing of life in our small villages, — something 
of mechanics and their wives, and I have heard 
from others a good deal about farmers' wives, 
and I know no harder lot than to be thrown 
among them for society. In France, the women 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 135 

in the middle and lower classes, in the cities at 
least, are said to be much superior to the men; 
in the United States it is quite the reverse, the 
women are small-minded and mean-minded be- 
yond belief. I cannot bear the thought of your 
going West. At first, Virginia pleased me bet- 
ter; I knew that there were cultivated people in 
the State and thought there might be friendly 
intercourse with them; but the more I read, the 
more I hear, of the state of feeling at present 
existing, the more convinced I am that as long 
as the question of slavery there is undecided, 
free settlers, however cultivated, will be under 
a taboo, — may even be in danger from per- 
sonal attack from the vagabond whites. As 
visitors, you are courteously received; as set- 
tlers, you would find things changed. Nothing 
would induce me to expose the girls to it. And, 
after all, why talk of emigration ? Hatty's cough 
is already gone, and if it is on my account, I 
hope at the end of another year to find all 
climates alike ; the work is as we choose to 
make it, the West is no less under pressure 
than the East. Even if I have to go away, it 
will be but for a few years, — or let us say for 
five or ten, — it is certainly better than having 
me in China, is it not? Individually, I should 



133 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

it would be either pleasant or strengthening till 
I got as far north as the Tyrol ; it has been 
both. Dr. Wilson, whom we saw in Florence, 
feared the sun might be too trying on the Lom- 
bardy plain, and advised us to avoid being on 
the road between 9 a. m. and 4 p. m. ; we 
have not always succeeded, even on fair days, 
but have felt no evil effects. I just ride as 
much or as little as the spirit moves me, some- 
times thirty miles, sometimes not an inch. 
Both our horses have proved sound and kind : 
Henry's was bought from a carter and has 
shown himself a miracle of endurance, but he 
has worked too hard in his youth to enjoy much 
now ; mine, on the contrary, had always rol- 
licked on the Campagna, had never worn shoes, 
and I feared the monotonous routine of labour 
might be intolerable to him, in spite of the 
solid oats he earned at both ends of the day. 
Madam, my fears were groundless, — that caval- 
lino works as well, eats as fast, sleeps as sound 
as his more staid companion, and life is to him 
tenfold less bitter ; our midday siesta is a season 
of ever new delights to him, he rejoices in the 
song of the birds. In the rustling of the leaves, 
in the wind that shakes his mane : the other 
takes his rest as gladly in the shadow of a 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 139 

house as under the shade of forest trees. I 
call my animal Nosegay, — nor is it physically 
inappropriate, as he has a bright pink spot on 
the end of his nose. In leaving Florence we 
avoided the great route direct to Bologna and 
took a less travelled road over the Apennines, 
passing through Pistoia to Modena, — it is 
thought by some that Hannibal crossed here 
descending into Etruria. For three days we 
were more or less among the mountains, often 
in fine old chestnut forests with just the sym- 
metrical, flowerlike foliage which Tintoret loves 
to paint. From Modena we struck off to 
Parma, returned to M., and then eastward to 
Bologna. This gave us three days of unbroken 
cultivated level. You say that you first saw our 
Mother Earth face to face in the fertile swelling 
roll of Virginia. HerCy strangely enough, one 
loses sight of her entirely ; as the eye travels 
along the straight road in front, or down be- 
tween the straight lines of trees on either side, 
something is missed sadly : the festoons of the 
vine, the waving surface of the wheatfields, are 
still lovely amid all the monotonous rectangu- 
larity ; they assert themselves by their beauty 
to be the gifts of Gods ; but the " bounteous 
mother dwells not there." It is not that she 



140 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

veils herself, but she is not there^ and her ab- 
sence very soon disgusts one with the scene. 
Fortunately we had the Apennines always in 
our near horizon, not crouching, as American 
hills often do, nor yet marching stately, like 
the blue Campagna hills, but raising their faces 
into the pure white light above them with a 
calm triumph which reminds one of Milton's 
sonnet on his blindness. I see now where the 
early religious painters got their backgrounds, 
■■ — it was not a conventionality but a necessity 
with them. From Bologna we went seaward to 
Ravenna, and then north among lagoons and 
heavy sand roads to Mestre within five miles 
of Venice, where we left our beasts. The road 
was chiefly interesting as showing what Venice 
sprang from. In Parma and Ravenna I was 
disappointed ; Bologna I found uninteresting 
before, but Modena repaid us, and the little 
towns Imola and Faenza were very character- 
istic of North Italy. Venice is better than 
ever, — it is for pictures what Rome is for 
statues. We go north in a few days, shall 
spend some weeks in the Tyrol and then on 
to Dresden. 

I ask no questions about the West, for I 
shall hear it all ere this reaches you. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 141 

TO HIS MOTHER 

LiENZ, July 8, 1857. 
Dearest Mother, — . . . Have you de- 
cided to emigrate en masse? If you have, of 
course we must go West; the risk in Virginia is 
far too great for us to stake our all upon it: 
for me alone it would be very different. You 
speak of Quincy [Illinois] as a promising place : 
I wish you would give me some idea of your 
plan. How much land you intend to buy, — 
how you intend to cultivate it, &c. ? Also 
whether, in the course of time, there is likely 
to be any chance for manufacturing, rather than 
farming. I think there is no doubt we might 
prosper out there, for Quincy must be a great 
grain-centre in time, and some one will make 
fortunes : but successful speculation requires a 
talent by itself, of which I have never seen in 
myself the slightest proof In anything con- 
nected with manufactures, or even with the 
lower branches of railroad management, ability 
will answer, and that I once had. However, 
money, after all, is not what we are seeking 
for, so much as some other things. I had hoped 
to repay some of Grandmother's kindness, by 
giving Cabot a lift, in case I had luck myself: 



142 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

but I fear that is all over. By the way, did you 
see any farms, out West, worked on the joint 
profit principle, giving the hired labourers an 
interest in the success of the whole by making 
a part of their wages depend on the profits? I 
always wanted to try that, or rather to see it 
tried in our cotton and iron mills, and on a 
large farm the experiment would be equally 
valuable. If you will give me a full account of 
your plans, I can tell whether I can assist you at 
all by going West next winter. As far as I can 
judge out here, there is likely to be a fall in 
everything within a year or two. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

IscHL, Aug. 1 6, 1857. 
I am glad Jim ' does not yet feel quite made 
up as to the choice of his profession, — he must 
not forget that the " choice of a profession " is 
an Old World institution ; in New England it 
need not trouble anybody — young fellows gen- 
erally do bother themselves a good deal about 
it, unless, as in my case, there happens to be a 
foregone decision of long standing. Jim will 
not go to work quite as blindfold as I did, but 
perhaps, on the other hand, he will not have so 
good a chance to learn his mistake. If anything 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 143 

could add to my conviction that manufacturing, 
not trade, was my place, it is the daily contact 
with a chap like Henry, who is a thorough born 
merchant. I hope that, if Jim makes a blunder 
the first time, he will have some such friend by 
with whom to test himself. 

I am glad you have given up all anxiety about 
my future, — but I hope H fully under- 
stands that, if it proves better for her to go 
West, I go there as gayly as a horse to battle. 
** To give room for wandering is it. 
That the world is made so wide." 

I should look forward to a different career 
there, but I believe it might be quite as useful. 

We start northward Tuesday, and shall travel 
through Bohemia to Prague. Horses and selves 
all well and in good spirits. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Dresden, Sept. 3, 1857. 
Dresden, dearest Mother, was our goal when 
we bought our horses in Rome, but it was in 
such a distant horizon and there were so many 
tempting stopping places on the route that 
nobody, not even Henry and myself, quite 
believed we should reach it. Here at length 
we are. We arrived Monday afternoon, having 



144 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

driven from Teplitz that morning, and were 
both of us rather glad to put off our dusty 
riding garments and settle down into civiliza- 
tion. 

We "vote " our mode of travelling to be in 
every respect the best that young men can find, 
except walking with a knapsack. There are no 
scales at hand, but I am quite sure I must weigh 
ten pounds more than at any time since I left 
home. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Dresden, Sept. i6, 1857. 
John and I are rooming together in the house 
of a Professor Muller (he is Professor of 
History in the Cadet School, and a very kind 
and obliging man) : we have abjured English 
in theory, but in practice find it very difficult 
to abstain. Since John and Henry came along 
... we only go in to talk with the Professor 
and his wife between 8 and 9 in the evening. 
My chief anxiety here is how to get the needful 
amount of exercise. I ride two hours every day 
and generally pretty fast, — I row one hour, and 
of course do a good deal of walking, but I miss 
the grand exercise which we have had on our 
journey. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 145 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Dresden, Oct. 5, 1857. 

The first four days of last week I was quite 
occupied with the military manoeuvres on the 
hills round the city. It was not a mere review, 
but the Saxon troops, some 30,000 in number, 
were divided into two bodies, and the campaign 
of 1 8 13 was fought over on a small scale. It was 
well worth seeing, as the ground was historical. 

I start for the South day after to-morrow ; I 
shall take with me two very good letters to the 
director of the military hospitals in Algiers, the 
one from Dr. Reichenbach, the other from a 
Mr. Gunther, a Dresden architect and a capital 
fellow ; he was in Algiers two or three years ago. 
They both say that the French Doctor is a 
trump, — that he will be delighted to help me, 
and will, without doubt, give me a good chance 
to get into the back country with some of the 
troops which are constantly detached there. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Vienna, Oct. 13, 1857. 

You beg me to come home in the Spring 
with my mind as far as possible made up about 
my future, — I do not like to disappoint you 



146 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

in your school plan, but you know that all that 
keeps me abroad this second year is the strong 
hope and belief that this additional exercise 
will make me almost as good a worker as I 
ever was. In this idea I shall rather omit my 
French lessons this winter than lose a good 
horseback expedition into the interior. Whether 
it be a railway, a rolling-mill, a machine-shop, 
or a cotton-factory, depends not so much on 
me as on circumstances, — but I am quite con- 
vinced that for ten or fifteen years my true 
field is in manufactures. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Steamer Office, 
Marseilles, Oct. 31, 1857. 

I arrived this morning from Livorno. . . . 

Have you heard from John since 's failure? 

I hope that neither that nor 's will affect 

your brother. I hear that it is possible that 
Cousin F may have to go home in conse- 
quence of the stoppage of the Pemberton. His 
letters were waiting for him in Florence when I 
left, some having been there more than a fortnight. 
That looks as if he had made some change in 
his plans. Have you heard anything about how 
the loss on the Pemberton is divided? . . . 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 147 

What does it amount to when a Railroad 
stops paying on its floating debt? Is it failure? 
If so, the Michigan Central has failed. Mr. 
Forbes is in England with the twins for six days 
trying to raise $2,000,000.' 

... I tremble for the Pepperell,but perhaps, 
now the banks have stopped, things will be 
easier. I hear they are easier in New York. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Algiers, Nov. 2, 1857. 
Dearest Mother, — Here I am in Africa. 
You will be glad to get me safe there, I dare 
say. I came from Vienna by way of Trieste, 
Venice, and Florence to Marseilles, — this being 
the cheapest though not the quickest route. I 
took a second cabin passage, and the air was 

so stifling that I was as sick as even could 

have succeeded in being. I am exceedingly 
obliged to him for his letter to young Bonaparte, 
and shall certainly deliver it, if he is stationed 
here. I am now writing in the fourth story. All 
the hotels are high French buildings. ... I 
have a little balcony which commands a view 
of the bay and am allowed the run of the roof, 
which at night — it is now moonlight — is very 
pleasant. 



148 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

After visiting Dr. Guyon, it is possible I may 
go back fifty miles in the interior ; it will be 
cooler and the chance for exercise will be better. 
I met some young Frenchmen on board the 
steamer who have come over for some shooting, 
and if nothing better offers, I may go back with 
them to Medeah. The weather feels charmingly 
hot after the cool winds of Genoa, and among 
all these Arabs and Moors I feel myself grow- 
ing already Oriental. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Algiers, Nov. 24, 1857. 

Dearest Mother, — Day after to-morrow 
is " Thanksgiving Day," I suppose. It will be 
but a dull festival in Boston ; but we have a 
great deal to thank the Gods for. 

Aunt Mary, too, has added one more to her 
many kindnesses — she has got me acquainted 
with an exceedingly agreeable, cultivated, and — 
what you will value more — motherly French 
lady, Mme. Girault, — who is here for her son's 
health. I live on the same floor and run in 
very often of an evening to see them, — you 
see there is no chance of my ever becoming a 
man ; I find some one to take your place wher- 
ever I go. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 149 

My French teacher is a capital fellow, an ex- 
ile since '52 ; I have other acquaintances too, 
both French and English, — among them an 
old Scotch Doctor in the Indian service, with 
whom I play chess two or three times a week, 
more on his account than mine, as I grudge the 
time, — but he is lonely and not very well. I 
believe we are going to have an uncommonly 
fine winter, — thus far, the weather is magnifi- 
cent, far finer than I had expected. It is not un- 
like our fine October weather, but rather warmer, 
— when it rains, no human can stay out, but the 
sun dries the streets in a very short time. You 
see I have everything to make me happy here. 

I cut out what I began about your proposal 
for the "Atlantic" and will not answer at present 
— know, however, that I am more than ever, 
since I left you, impressed with my utter lack 
not merely of the power of expression, but still 
more of observation. I enjoy my surroundings, 
as Adam and Eve enjoyed Paradise, according 
to Mr. Carlyle. 

TO J. C. BANCROFT 

Algiers, Dec. 5, 1857. 

I am living very contentedly here. Not ris- 
ing very early, I manage, by dint of a little rid- 



ISO LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ing and a good deal of walking, to get on as far 
as ten or ten and a half a. m., then I breakfast 
at the Cafe, take another turn in the Place, — 
and am boarded by my French teacher, who 
stays with me till i p. m. At two, I mount my 
beast and continue in the saddle till 5, read a 
little again, and dine at six, or six and a half. I 
dine now with an EngHshman, a very pleasant 
fellow, who sketches in water colours and will 
put you through, I fancy, if you come here. 
After dinner we take our coffee and adjourn to 
the Club, where I have lately, since my eyes 
were troubled, passed all my evenings. There 
is plenty of billiard playing, — chess playing 
and gambling. Thus the day endeth, — un- 
profitable enough, is it not? If you come, we 
will do our riding before breakfast, and then 
you will have from 1 1 till 5 for your studio. 
There is no end of sketching both in and out 
of the city. I will confess at once another pro- 
ject I have which must not appall you, — the 
"Atlantic Monthly" gives ten dollars a page, 
— Mother has been twice asked, by Mr. Emer- 
son and by the Editor' independently of each 
other, to get some letters from Algeria out of 
me. There is certainly enough to write about 
here, — but alone I should never get it into 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 151 

form ; if you come, perhaps we can strike out 
something together. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Algiers, Dec. 10, 1857. 

Dearest Mother, — What would you give 
for a climate which permits you, at 8 o'clock in 
the morning on the loth of December, to write 
by an open window ? Even here they talk of their 
mild and their hard winter — and happily this 
year promises to be one of the former. Last year 
there were 60 days of incessant rain, — as yet, 
we have not had a day when we could not find 
four or five hours at least for exercise. When 
I first came, I thought 1 should get along with- 
out riding, but at this season I found it would 
not do, I must secure a certain number of hours 
of violent exercise, — so I hired a horse. But 
he did not prove very good, and almost broke 
my neck on one of the descents here, so finally 
I have again bought a horse. Of course, I shall 
lose something in the Spring, but not a great 
deal, I hope, as the animal is sound and strong 
and I have already been offered 50 francs for 
my bargain. 

But the main point is that you should not 
be pinching yourself in the necessaries this 



152 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

winter. I am drawing on my future, but feel 
as sure as any one can that I have the work 
in me to repay you all, ev^en your love, dear 
Mother, but not with work. Since the first of 
November I have not once regretted that I have 
stayed abroad this second year ; that is saying 
a good deal for a fellow of my changeable tem- 
perament. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Algiers, Dec. 31, 1857. 
Buchanan is getting in deeper and deeper in 
the Kansas matter, — he'll need his four regi- 
ments there yet. I am glad to see that even 
such men as Douglas are too consistent to fol- 
low him where he is plunging now. I never 
read anything weaker than the part of his ad- 
dress that related to Kansas, — except one of 
Mr. Vernon Smith's or Sir C. Wood's speeches. 
Will there be no chance to do something in 
Kansas next Autumn, — can you find out for 
me through Mr. H. what Stephen Perkins is 
doing or proposing to do ? What a funny Gov- 
ernment we live under, — where the Treasury 
Department suspends payment three days after 
the President has announced to Congress that 
it would on no account suspend. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 153 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Jan. 2, 1858. 

... If you do not stay another year in Eu- 
rope, what do you propose to do next Autumn ? 
Business? Will it be settled by that time? I 
think I shall probably go West, after all, but 
do not write home about it. Kansas affairs are 
becoming interesting again, and I should think 
by the Spring we ought to know if it would be 
a free place for a ^^ free man " to settle. . . . 
All failures seem to turn out worse than they 
were expected to. . . . What an asinine rogue 
Buchanan shows himself in what he says about 
Kansas. I was glad to hear Douglas was hard on 
him, but which will the Democrats of the North 
acknowledge as their mouthpiece ? Douglas, I 
think; not to-day, perhaps, nor to-morrow, but 
before the end of the year. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Algiers, February 9, 1858. 

After much ponderation, I have finally de- 
cided to pull up my tent-sticks and start again 
for Europe ; whether I go to Nice or Naples 
depends entirely on whether I can get a good 
price for my horse. If I cannot, I shall take 



154 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

him with me to France, and ride eastward and 
southward along the Riviera to Pisa, and per- 
haps even to Rome. I gave up all idea of going 
into the interior some time ago — the snow on 
the neighboring hills here gave me a notion 
of what there must be on the chain of the great 
Atlas, and the heat, two months from now, will 
be something scorching, if I can judge by the 
sun which occasionally touches my face up. 
My chief reason, then, for changing is that I 
may utilize the time between now and April 
ist, which I should otherwise have to pass in 
or about this city ; not a bad sort of life, to be 
sure, but I don't put so much muscle on my 
limbs as when en route a cheval. I have never 
been so strong as when I reached Dresden after 
our ride from Rome. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Malta, March 13, 1858. 

It is four weeks to-day since I left Algiers, 
and a very pleasant four weeks it has been, 
especially the fortnight I spent at Tunis. Mr. 
Davis, the gentleman sent out by the British 
Museum to collect what he can on the site of 
Carthage, had us twice at his house among the 
ruins, and gave us a very jolly picnic. Pretty 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 155 

much all that is to be seen now dates, I fancy, 
from Roman and not from Punic Carthage, — 
but the site of Dido's ancient city is unmistak- 
able, and a noble site it is, — quite equal to that 
of Rome, and of Rome's other rivals, Veii and 
Caire. The flowers were already coming out 
there. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Malta, March 13, 1858. 
Why not come south and join me again at 
Rome? I left Algiers four weeks ago to-day, 
feeling sick and weary of the place. I have 
spent more money there and got less benefit 
than from any three months since I left home. 
I was tackled by a cold on the last day of 
1857 — so was all the world, but mine hung on 
all through January, until I could stand the 
place no longer, so I left, in company with an 
Englishman, a capital fellow, for Tunis. I 
have passed two very jolly weeks there, and 
am now nearly a week in Malta — cough gone, 
colour back, and happy as a skylark. I am 
travelling in saddle-bags, /. e. with only such 
traps as I can strap on the back of a horse 
when I get to Italy. I shall take the steamer 
for Naples to-night. 



156 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

. . . What an offer L[ouIs] N[apoleon] has 
made Agassiz, and what an ass A. will be if he 
accepts it. ^20,000 a year and a seat in the 
Senate, — but for how long ? 

I often think of you, Sir, and wish to see the 
light of your removed countenance. Good-bye. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Rome, April 8, 1858. 

Dearest Henry, — Yours of March reached 
me (or rather I reached it) yesterday morn- 
ing. 1 have taken the night to consider your 
business plan, and although I have found it 
fascinating at first, have decided that I cannot 
honestly join you, as you wish. Your offer was 
a very generous one, and many thanks for it, 
old fellow. My strongest feehng at the moment 
(burnt into me by the events of the last six 
months) is to make no promises which I am 
not sure to be able to keep. But in my present 
state of health, of what can I be sure ? That 
damned Algiers showed me clearly that for the 
next six or seven years I must have no engage- 
ments which would involve either much excite- 
ment or much confinement. If I borrow money 
to start a farm, I shall do it with the feeling 
that for an out-of-door life I am to all intents 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 157 

a strong man, and can make promises with as 
good a risk as ever. Even in that event, how- 
ever, I shall be more cautious than I once should 
have. I have lost all confidence in myself. It 
is rather a shameful confession, but it is the 
fact. 

I have based my refusal, you see, on the sim- 
plest grounds. I have said gar-nichts about my 
feeling to my mother, or about any aspirations 
which I may have lingering somewhere for sci- 
ence or for study — nothing about the loss of 
the many pleasures, which he who expatriates 
himself while the youthful sap is still running, 
must, of course, resolve to forego. This last 
consideration touches you. 

Remember, dear boy, that the bloom lasts 
on the rye but a little little while, and I think 
you can suck more pleasure out of old Boston, 
squeezed as it is. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Rome, April 9, 1858. 
Roman society, so far as I have seen it, is 
trivial beyond belief, — perhaps the artists keep 
all their deep and serious life for their marble 
and their canvas, but, except Hawthorne, I doubt 
if there is an earnest, thinking American at 



158 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Rome. I ought to except Eliot Cabot also, but 
he leads so quiet and domestic a life, that but 
for the pleasure of knowing that there is so 
calm, high, and thoughtful a man near you, — 
he might almost as well be at home. I doubt 
but he is a success. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Paris, May i, 1858. 

I have delayed my letter to tell you what 
Louis ' said on Thursday and Michon yester- 
day. Louis, after ausculting, says, " U auscul- 
tation n indique pas V existence (Tune affection 
tuberculeuse — Seulement, le bruit respiratoire 
est faible sous la clavicule droite avec une dimi- 
nution de sonorite, comme s' il y avait eu de ce 
cote une pleurisie." 

You hope I am enjoying myself — it is part 
of my philosophy to enjoy myself, — but really 
my three weeks in Rome were a little more 
balmy and blissful than any weeks in Europe 
yet. 

You talk of leaving Cambridge with me, if I 
go West or South. You must not make up your 
mind at all before seeing me. I certainly should 
be utterly unwilling to drag either Father or 
the girls away from Cambridge. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 159 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Paris, May 13, 1858. 

I am glad Jim has decided to study law. As 
to your plan of sending us together to look up 
a farm in Virginia, . . . you do not reflect 
that I am perfectly able to pass a year in Boston 
without the least risk. I have not been travel- 
ling two years for nothing. I could live there 
perfectly, if necessary, — but I have not the 
courage I once had; I can't think of keeping 
up two lives now, — one is quite enough, and 
business and money are by no means so attrac- 
tive as a quiet life in the country with time for 
Mathematics. I should think I might get a 
pupil or two, enough to pay my expenses, dur- 
ing the time I stay in Cambridge. 

I have been to the theatre several times, and 
have heard Isidore GeofFroy St. Hilaire at the 
Sorbonne, — I shall go Saturday to hear Lever- 
rier and Lionville. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Paris, May 27, 1858. 
I am sorry to lose Devonshire, but thank 
Fortune for playing me an ill turn now and 
then ; the wheel must turn sometime and I get 



i6o LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

frightened when my spoke points too long at 
the zenith. 

Before the 25th, I shall in all probability be 
cleaving the blue. I come back as destitute of 
plans as I was full of them four years ago; there 
is an indefinite word "farming" which has been 
knocked between us backwards and forwards 
across the Atlantic very often during the last 
two years, — but do you know what "farming " 
is ? I don't ; I suppose I shall learn. Is it " life," 
or is it only a " means " ? Less purely a " means " 
than most other callings which men are tied up 
to in these days, but yet not quite a " life." I 
look at itwith great complacency, because I think 
I can earn thereby an honest livelihood with- 
out entirely abandoning my favourite Mathe- 
matics, but it is not the way to win a fortune. 
If it is necessary in the present state of things 
that some one of the family should pile up a 
fortune, — as A. seems to fancy, — why, I had 
better not become a farmer, nor Jim a lawyer. 
I suppose we could get employment out West 
on railways, or something of that sort, which 
would pay much more handsomely. MaiSy nous 
verrons. Mr. Forbes's plan strikes me as plea- 
santer in many respects for you than anything 
we could manage in Virginia, but I don't know 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL i6i 

how much responsibility it involves. I think 
you might even enjoy it — but Virginia I am 
sure would come too hard. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Paris, June lo, 1858. 

Dearest Mother, — I am still detained, 
you see, by that Syren Capital whose corkscrew 
voice so soon relieves young travellers' long 
ears of the plugs of good advice which Fathers 
and Mothers have so fondly thrust therein, — 
still detained, but now an unwilling inmate of 
the sty. . . . 

Allans^ courage, mes enfant s ! — a page filled 
without an idea, except the false one that I have 
not enjoyed Paris. Blessed be the man that 
invented words ! I have enjoyed Paris, I have 
enjoyed immensely the Louvre and the Tui- 
leries Garden, — Titian and Giorgione are as 
great in France as in Italy, — and in little chil- 
dren one likes materialism, provided it be jolly, 
and can pardon fine dress, if it do but jump 
rope unconsciously. The Theatre Fran^ais, too, 
might by judicious management be made to 
wear for many months. But Paris streets and 
Paris dinners are at most but a nine days' 
pleasure. 



i62 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Liverpool, July 2, 1858. 

Henry, Apple of my eye, — I write to thee 
not because the mood is upon me, not because 
there is news to tell thee, nor yet because I 
labour under a pressure of private opinion, and 
must let out to some one or burst my dura 
mater. No, I write to say Farewell. God speed 
thee, for in ten days the great waters will stretch 
between thee and me, in ten days I shall be 
kissing my mother's forehead. I kiss thee adieu 
on either cheek, sweet friend. I send thee love. 
Ask me not to send thee wit, for I am just 
arisen from beastly roast beef, and still more 
beastly stout; but, an thou lovest me, my Henry, 
within ten days of my arrival on the other shore 
let me read a superscription in thy well-known 
mercantile paw-writing to say " Great is Allah, 
who giveth us friends." Write me how come 
on the little songs, thou sucking nightingale, 
whether thou dost confine thyself to simple bobo- 
link melodies, or art thou ambitious, like ? 

To each young sprout 

Hirsute, 

That doth thy snout 

Pollute. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 163 

which copy of verses, a la Pistol, please excuse, 
or, if not excusable, set them unto music and 
I will cry quits. 

TO J. C. BANCROFT 

Naushon, Aug. 15, 1858. 
I am now down at Naushon, — getting up 
muscle and coaching young Forbes ' through 
Algebra and History. It is the finest island on 
the whole Atlantic coast, — \ioYsts ad libitum y — 
guns enough for a regiment, — and a squadron of 
sail-boats. The house is filled with a constantly 
changing crowd of visitors, — who are always the 
best people in the country, each in his depart- 
ment. The woods are part of the primeval for- 
est, and you canter out of them on to a stretch 
of downs, unsurpassed on this side of the water. 
Am I not a lucky dog to tumble into such a 
jollitude, and be paid for it too ? 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Naushon, Aug. 23, 1858. 
My RETROSPECTIVE CousiN, — Thy epistlc 
has reached me, launched from the depths of 
Steyrmarkt. With its moody pathos, it has 
knocked my wind out in this snug little Puri- 
tan isle. Thou canst not expect me to fall in 



1 64 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

with thy humour. I am galloping through a 
month of life more distracting than Paris, more 
attracting than Naples ; and what have I to say- 
to thee, thou whey-drinking, backward-looking 
old hydropath ? Get thou behind me, mole ; 
thou work'st i' the earth. 

By the time this hits thee in the pit of the 
stomach, I shall probably be in the far West. 
Cheerful, is it not ^ More than a week ahead I 
have ceased to look, but the West stares me in 
the face whenever I open my eyes. A railway, 
probably; salary small, but a chance ahead if 
found smart — cheerful again — you know I 
hate smartness. 

But if I don't look forward, no more do 
I look backward — I live in the moment — I 
breathe an atmosphere of rifles and fishing tackle 
and saddle horses — and I snap my fingers at 
ideas, at thoughts, at sentiments. How could a 
returned European better pass his first month, 
— how could a departing Westerner better pass 
his last month? I have kissed my Mother and 
found her good, better, best — have shaken 
hands with my brother, and found him more 
of a man than myself — as for my sisters, the 
one who was going to migrate with me is en- 
gaged, and of course lost to me. I 'm a differ- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 165 

ent man to what I was, Henry — worse, 1 fear 

— less hopeful, I know. One thing, however, 
consoles me in this Western scheme. It is easy 
enough to live along in Cambridge, in Boston, 
in Europe, and never to know that you are no- 
body. In Missouri or Iowa this will be harder, 

— the shaking up comes oftener, and the light 
peas go over the sides demnition rapid. It 's no 
use being a feller out there, unless you 're a hell 
of a feller. But then it 's scarcely worth while 
to be a feller at all, I admit. 

. . . Our friend Stephen is an altered man — 
more hopeful, younger. ... I send thee many 
warm handshakes, old boy, and some little love. 
Good-bye. 



LETTERS 
III 

RAILROAD AND IRON-WORKS 

By commanding first thyself, thou mak'st 
Thy person fit for any charge thou tak'st. 

John Fletcher. 



They 're all awa' ! True heat, fiill power, the clanging chorus 

goes 
Clear to the tunnel where they sit, my purring dynamoes ; 
Interdependence absolute, foreseen, ordained, decreed 
To work. Ye '11 note, at any tilt, an' every rate o' speed. 
Fra skylight-lift to fiirnace-bars, backed, bolted, braced an' 

stayed. 
An' singing like the Mornin' Stars for joy that they were made. 
Now, a' together, hear them lift their lesson, theirs and mine, 
**Law, Orrder, Duty and Restraint, Obedience, Discipline." 
Mill, forge and try-pit taught them that when roarin* they 

arose. 
An* whiles I wonder if a soul was gied them wi' the blows. 
But no one cares except mysel' that serve an' understand 
My seven thousand horse-power here. Eh, Lord ! they 're 

grand — they 're grand! 
Uplift am I ? When first in store the new-made beasties 

stood. 
Were Ye cast down that breathed the Word declarin' all things 

good ? 
Not so! O', that world-lifting joy no after-fall could vex; 
Ye 've left a glimmer still to cheer the Man — the Artifex! 

Mc Andrew* s Hymn. 



Ill 

RAILROAD AND IRON-WORKS 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Burlington, Iowa, Sept. 13, 1858. 

Burlington is a very nice sort of place, — I 
much prefer it to either Detroit or Chicago, — 
it stands high, — being built on the sides and 
tops of two lofty bluffs which slope together 
and touch knees in a heady, self-willed little 
torrent called Hawkeye Creek. By the way, 
this is the Hawkeye State, I believe, — I now 
live and move and have my being among 
Hawkeyes. 

The town, of course, has a half-fledged look, 
the pin-feathers being still very apparent, — but 
the savage sullenness of the Mississippi tones 
it down in a measure, and seems to justify a 
semi-demi-civilization. I wish, by the way, it 
had the same effect on the prices, — for all I 
can see yet, considerably more than four fifths 
of my salary will go for boarding, washing, and 
lights ; at the hotel I shan't get off for less 



I70 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

than 2S dollars a month, and boarding-houses 
seem hard to beat up. However, it is only for 
a year. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Burlington, Nov. 12, '58. 

It is not so sunshining out here that I can 
spare the little rays I get from thinking of you. 
I am selfish in every way. It is my nature : 
but this is a selfishness which your own yearn- 
ing should make you in part excuse : I am sel- 
fish by very dint of having you too much in 
my heart, and not by forgetting you. 

I am contented here, perfectly, but man does 
not live by bread alone, he must have human 
sympathy, real or imagined. Do I ever read a 
Canto of Spenser, or of Chapman's stout old 
Odyssey without thinking fifty times how you 
would relish this or that, and fancying your 
sympathy ? If I were at home, I doubt if I 
should enjoy it as fully — I shall value these 
books fifty-fold more for this all through my life. 
Now, dear, when I feel this, how can I sit down 
and write you ? it would spoil it all, — in school- 
man's phrase, it would make object what I now 
enjoy as subject. I know how poets ease their 
hearts by writing out their sorrow, but I am no 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 171 

poet, and the heaviness on my heart is a sweet 
heaviness which I do not wish to shake off, I 
wish to gust it fully ; the dull blue indefinite 
homesickness which weighs and wears I do not 
feel here, I am too busy. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Burlington, Nov. 14, 1858. 

Put me in the first 200 pages of Peirce's 
book which was overlooked in the upper drawer 
of my bureau, also his Curves and Functions. 
Item, one pair of thin boots I left, as there may 
be gay doings among the Germans. If Uncle 
James has Child's Chaucer, perhaps he will 
lend me his Tyrwhitt's. 

I see Froude has launched a history of Henry 
VIII. He will never be able to manage him, the 
men are so unlike. I enclose part of our Thanks- 
giving Proclamation, — the recommendation to 
invest a day in Thanksgiving is delightfully 
Israelitish. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Burlington, Nov. 22, '58. 
If Anna will lend me her little Pilgrim's 
Progress, I should like it, also your Pascal's 
Provincial Letters, — and my Amts German 



172 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Grammar, if there is room, for I fancy even a 
box from home has limits of capacity. I should 
like my Spanish, English, and my Greek Dicks. 

Of the photographs, dear, 1 want you to have 
the Fortune framed and hang it in your room ; 
the Lady with the wheel and the Venus of 
Milo divide the world between them, remem- 
ber Dante's "^esta e co/ei" ' and take her as 
a pledge, dear, that there are days in store for 
you more " gaudy " than Mr. and Mrs. E. can 
ever compass in fancy. 

Your last Sunday's letter was given me yes- 
terday just as I was taking my foot from the 
stirrup. 1 started my fire and dined calmly, 
then read your note, and was just sitting down to 
answer it when there was a rap, and from then 
till 9 1/2 p. M. I was not left alone, not even at 
supper. Talking Swedenborg in a warm room 
after a ao miles ride rather melts the brain and 
does not leave much either for " uses " or corre- 
spondence, — so I have been pushed back into 
to-day which is pretty crowded. I have only one 
more word, dear; you say you have a cough : if 
you don't get over it, I shall come home, and take 
care of you ; you must remember, when you are 
well I am well ; you are the very root of my life 
now and will be perhaps forever. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 173 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Burlington, Dec. 14, '58. 

Dearest Mother, — The box arrived yes- 
terday afternoon, and in the evening, with due 
pomp, it was opened and its treasures displayed. 
Such miracles of warmth. I slept under the 
plumeau last night and have felt all day an in- 
ward sense of triumph, half wishing cold weather 
to return that I might calmly show it my supe- 
riority to its worst efforts. 

I welcomed Emerson's Poems, glanced at 
" Two Millions " and turned it over to Carper, 
— and was quite overcome at the sight of Car- 
lyle ; I shall have him for my table companion 
for a month. 

I have lately seen Buckle's Essay on the 
Influence of Woman. It is really refreshing to 
meet a writer so totally destitute of cleverness. 
I would not wish him a minim more perception 
of style, — it would take away from the sense 
of conviction which he inspires. Have you 
read the Essay ? It is worth reading. It makes 
one wish to know Buckle's mother, — he grows 
eloquent when he speaks of Mothers. He is a 
good fellow, I am sure. 



174 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Burlington, March 27, '59. 

As for me, my programme is simple, — gold- 
digging till I am 2 Si then, — big nugget or empty 
pockets, — I shall vote myself free and shall 
strike for something better and pleasanter. 
Talk about the best years of one's youth. Che ! 
Che I one is young as long as one chooses, and 
the best years are those when one lives the 
most; it is a halting life that lives down its 
best years in the first twenty-five. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Burlington, April 15, 1859. 

Do not fancy that I shall hold on here from 
any fear of the future ; that is a thraldom I am 
entirely free from. I am more ambitious than 
you know, and if I count on ten or twelve good 
years here, I should desire nothing better, for 
the pay is certain, — but I will run no risk of 
being broken down, either halfway or at the 
end. 

Do not think of bringing Hatty out here, — 
it is no place for women ; they can't stand the 
climate or the mode of life, and the society is 
cHquish to an extent unknown in the East. You 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 175 

and I will be society to one another, if you 
please, but it would be cruelty aforethought to 
bring H. here. 

By the way, Solger has been here on a lecture 
tour ; I had three minutes with him, he seemed 
glad to escape from the confinement of Boston 
into the freedom undefiled of the West, where 
every man is a law unto himself, and such a law. 
Solger is very quick-minded : his lecture is good 
but not artistic. 

Such weather as we have had here since 
March 10 ! hot South sultry rains turning short 
round into snow-squalls and cold bleak North- 
west prairie winds, always raining when warm, 
when fair always bleak and Marchy, sometimes 
four changes in 24 hours, and such mud, — 
the tradition Is that the Red man wandered 
West and when he reached this delta, struck 
with the beauty of the hunting ground, said, 
"Iowa. Here I rest:" — commentators are 
in error ; he said, " Here I stick." I heard 
of a Pike's Peak party to-day that left here 
five weeks ago, — and have made but 140 
miles West, just four miles a day with four 
horses. 



176 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO CHARLES E. PERKINS, ESQ., CINCINNATI 
Burlington, June z8, 1859. 

My DEAR Perkins, — I have just received 
your note of the 24th, and, filled with deep pity, 
hasten to enlighten you. Not know what " B. 
and M." means ! To ye Railwaye mind it typi- 
fies the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad 
— running due West from Burlington, bound 
for the Big Muddy — now taking breath awhile 
on the banks of the Des Moines. In winter and 
spring it means seventy-five miles of mud and 
water between Burlington and Ottumwa — in 
summer and autumn it is seventy-five miles of 
as pretty rail and ties as you would wish to see. 
You would have the title of Cashier, would have 
a credit at the Bank against which you would 
check for all bills as presented, duly entering 
the same in your books, and filing them as your 
vouchers. Not a complicated duty, and not 
likely to overtask you. It would leave you time 
to study the details of the Freight and Passenger 
business — and on our short road this would 
naturally be more open to you than a long road, 
where there is more subdivision of labour and 
more red tape. 

I think, myself, the place is quite a good one. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 177 

Perhaps the best introduction to Railway life is to 
commence on the construction — as rodman or 
engineer. But a position where you are forced 
to observe the cost of each and every article 
used and the cost of each branch of the service, 
cannot fail, I think, to be of service to you, 
whatever office you may settle into hereafter. 
There will be some drudgery, of course — but 
there will be some pleasant work to relieve it. 
At the beginning of every month you will be 
several days on the line paying off the agents 
and workmen — in fine weather this is very 
pleasant.^ 

The good city of Burlington, as a sojourn- 
ing place, is not to be sneezed at — and the 
surrounding country is now charming. We can 
boast but two packing houses, and at first you 
will naturally feel sad for the pigs you left 
behind you. Carper and I will do our best to 
cheer you — we are at this moment in treaty for 
a small house in the suburbs, with trees, one 
and a half acres of ground, and a plank walk to 
approach it ! — if successful, we can offer you as 
pleasant a nest as you would find even in Cin- 
cinnati or Cambridge. At any rate, we have 
now a large spare room to offer you in our 
mansion, on the third floor. We have some 



1 78 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

good books already, and every 'few months a 
box from the East brings more. My office is 
profaned by boxing-gloves, and foils and masks 
— and though I cannot say " my bark is on 
the shore," there is a friend of mine who gladly 
lends me his for a little piece of silver. We will 
make even your small pay leave a margin for 
extras.' 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON (iN VIENNA) 

Burlington, Oct. ii, '59. 

My dear Hal, — Thy letter of August 15th 
was most grateful, — the more, in that thou 
promisest to write me soon again. Do so, old 
boy, but next time let not thy " Pistol vein " 
lead thee swaggering down two whole pages 
before thou comest to thy most sweet self Let 
thy letter be all of thee, — thy shoulder, thy 
strength, and thy short-comings. So mine shall 
be of me and my surroundings. 

Burlington, as you know, perhaps, is on the 
Mississippi, — a large and muddy river run- 
ning North and South. The dwelling-houses 
of the place stand mostly on high bluffs, — the 
business streets lie in a half-egg-shaped hollow, 
where the bluffs retreat from the river to let in 
a little stream called the Hawkeye. The site is 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 179 

not bad, — and the country for five or six miles 
round is, at certain seasons, exceedingly pretty. 
The population is about ten thousand, about 
one third German, the rest equally divided 
among the Middle and Northern States, with 
a sprinkling of our Milesian brethren, — 
this gives the place a certain cosmopolitan 
character, and in spite of its diminutiveness I 
think the tone here is less provincial than in 
our Mother city, — other merit it has none, no 
society, and it wants none, — no amusements, 
and it wants none, — prices and the presidential 
campaign furnish sufficient excitement. The 
Germans attempt amusement, but cannot achieve 
it, — they give two or three good concerts each 
winter, and twice as many miserable vaudevilles 
— nobody goes to either. The place is too long 
settled to have any of the border spice left ; it 
has ceased to grow, so corner lots have lost 
their interest, and what little life it has, it owes 
to our one-horse railroad. Last year I lived at 
a public house and cursed God ; in July I 
took a snug little cottage about half a mile 
from town ; there we now housekeep — our 
general agent. Carper, a Bohemian, Charley 
Perkins, my cashier, whom you remember, and 
myself We have two acres of good land and a 



i8o LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

small stable, where I shall put a pony as soon 
as I can afford it. You would like the room in 
which I am writing, — it is oak painted, about 
17 feet square, with a big open fireplace pro- 
jecting from the East wall. It has two windows 
North and South, the latter overgrown with a 
large sweet-brier, now red with hips, the former 
sheltered by a roomy stoop running the whole 
length of the house. Over the fireplace hangs 
a photograph of Masaccio. In the recesses on 
either side the chimney are Raffaelle's Hours, 
and over against them, by the door, the Fortune 
of Michael Angelo. The carpet and wall-paper 
are a blue and brown which you would fancy 
— chairs, tables, and book-boxes oak, and 
enough books to civilize the whole. Put me 
about five feet from the bright wood-fire, and 
you have my "exact location," — is not that a 
little Eden ? 

You speak about spheres. I am getting over 
vague Charleynesses about inner life. I am 
drying, my lad, drying, — if I ever do burn, you 
will see less smoke. 

My ambition now is to be able to " toil ter- 
ribly," like Sir Walter Raleigh, — let me but 
get and keep this, and I may yet do something. 
Meanwhile, I occasionally bite unripe apples to 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL i8i 

set my teeth on edge, as of old. I want to know 
something still, but don't know what I want to 
know. Railroading, I fancy, is as honourable as 
other kinds of business, — you know I put them 
all below honest mechanic handiwork. What 
makes railroading dang'erous, is the fact that the 
roads here are built too early. Build a cheap 
road two thirds through a new country, mort- 
gage this to build the other one third ; then 
find that the business of the country is too light 
to keep the road in thorough running order, to 
pay interest on bonds, and to give dividends 
to needy stockholders, — this is the history 
of most Western roads, and this complicates 
things. In the adjustment of this conflict of 
interests, the ideal, the good road, perfect in all 
its parts, is apt to be lost sight of, and a man 
does simply the day's work that lies nearest 
him, better or worse according to his honesty 
and talent. This is not cheering, is it, old boy? 
And yet as long as our people will rush on 
and will fill more land than they can honestly 
till, this evil must continue; there lies the origi- 
nal dishonesty, and we must bear the conse- 
quences. ... 

Seriously, mine ancient, write me of thy hopes 
in art and elsewhere. One of the saddest things 



i82 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

in the life here is the absence of new interests, 
and the gradual scaling off of the old ones. 
The West may make a man strong, massy, 
rock-like, — never large and generous and 
manly. There are no new roots tempted out, 
— but the old ones, if they are left, may tap 
deeper. 

By Plato, Henry, my pen has got the bit 
between his teeth. . . . What I mean is, 
write, and I will write. Write only four lines, 
but write often. Do you know any true-hearted, 
violet-eyed women, or any cultivated men ? 
What operas do you hear, and which do you 
like best ? When shall you come home ? Shall 
you pass through Italy ? If you do, buy me 
a Giorgione. I will pay you when I can, or 

never. I hear of Johnny through Miss ; 

nothing but good. ... I hope, ten years 
from now, to live with him in a little Ital- 
ian villa, and drink in a little art through his 
eyes. At any rate, I shall enjoy the sunshine 
and the gray olives and the people, cattle, 
and the fulness of Italy. Good-bye, dear old 
fellow. 

P. S. — The last great event is the casting 
of my first vote. I threw it to-day in favour of 
Republican State officers. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 183 

TO HIS SISTER ANNA 

Burlington, Oct. 29, '59. 

I cannot see why our housekeeping should 
be "funny;" in high art the ludicrous is scarcely 
admissible, and our housekeeping is art of the 
highest. You should have tasted our pea-soup 
of to-day, — in successive failures wisdom had 
been gathered and garnered up, and to-day we 
plucked the fruit : such colour, tawny as the 
lion's mane: such consistency, slow flowing as 
of milk and honey, with which the spoon is 
loath to part: such fragrance, more grateful than 
odour of pea-blossoms wafted on the Southwest 
breeze, — and this great result all wrought with 
a handful of split peas and a little water, — 
verily, if architecture is frozen music, cooking 
is melody boiled and roast. Boiled melody 
reminds me of boiled mutton : I should like 
to show you one of our successful efforts in 
that line, — plain, unmarred by the flamboyant 
caper. Or our Doric codfish of a Friday, — 
not Doric either, its salt is Attic, is it not from 
Boston ? 

All this and much more I would show you, 
could you pass a week with me, but nothing 
" funny." 



i84 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO GEORGE ASHBURNER, ESQ. 

Burlington, Dec. 23, 1859. 

Your offer was, of course, quite a temptation 
to me at first, — but after thinking the matter 
calmly over, I am convinced that it is wiser to 
remain where I am. For three or four years 
past I have been obliged to pay some regard to 
climate, living where the air was dry, and where 
the weather invited to exercise. In these re- 
spects Iowa suits me exactly, and here my chance 
of being happy and useful, — in a word, strong, 
is as good as anybody's. The opening you pro- 
pose in the East is far more brilliant, but this 
is overweighed in my case by the risk, — my 
power of resistance to the damp enervating 
heats of Calcutta would, I fear, be small. 

There is another reason which has more 
weight with me now than it would once have 
had. A sound man feels that he has a right, 
himself, to dispose of himself, but a fellow 
who has been ill feels that his kindred have a 
new claim on him. My mother's hold upon 
me has increased tenfold within four years, — 
and she must be included in my plans for the 
next ten years. She takes great comfort in my 
present position in Burlington, believes in the 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 185 

climate, and means to make her home with me 
a part of each year. I cannot disappoint her, 
— and I know from my own feeHng that, apart 
from the anxiety, the long separation would be 
very hard upon her. 

In declining your offer, I need not say that 
I feel your kindness deeply, — I hope to have 
an opportunity of thanking you in person. 

TO JOHN M. FORBES^ 

Burlington, Dec. 23, 1859. 
I was rather in hopes of getting a note from 
home this morning — but your letter covers 
the ground so completely that I need no more 
light. If my Mother's opinion was strongly 
expressed, I am sure that it was not a mere 
opinion, but that there was a strong wish be- 
hind it. This has weighed much with me, but, 
even without it, I think I should have decided 
the same way. My first duty is to earn an in- 
dependence. This satisfied, my one ambition 
is to recover and keep up my old power of 
work, — to be able to " toil terribly," as Mr. 
Emerson says of Sir Walter Raleigh : for this 
I am always training. The Jacksons belong so 
distinctly to the useful, and not the ornamental 
half of mankind, — that supposing an independ- 



1 86 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ence secured, I am sure I shall be happier with 
hand and head in good working order than with 
unlimited means of enjoyment in any other sort. 
Dropping upon me on one of our most Arctic 
days, — mercury at zero with a wind, the offer 
of a residence in a tropical climate was startling, 
and for an hour or two very tempting. After 
letting the smoke clear away a little, however, 
and revolving the matter quietly, I came to the 
above conclusion as to what I wanted, — and I 
suppose there can be no question that the life 
here is more likely to lead to that. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Burlington, Dec. 25, 1859. 

Your note of last Sunday was unaccountably 
delayed — I only got it this morning. I had 
already answered Mr. Ashburner and Mr. 
Forbes — had said No. — So lucky I should 
have happened to decide that way, just as you 
wanted me to. 

I stay here because I think in the end I shall 
be happier for it, — and because you, I know, 
will be happier to have me here. It was a 
chance to steal a march on Fortune, — and I 
believe Fortune will be none the less kind to 
me, that I have let the chance pass. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 187 

In justice to myself I must say that, climate 
apart, there are few young men to whom Cal- 
cutta would be so little dangerous as to me, — 
this is not a boast, but a simple statement of 
opinion, which may be wrong. 

This freedom of American youth to come and 

go, which Mrs. T praises, has its thorns ; 

like the possession of a head and hands, it 
adds responsibilities. To hoist my flag for the 
Indies under such auspices was very tempting, 
— an Oriental like myself always longs for the 
Sacred River. However, there is life to be had 
everywhere, in Iowa, as in Italy or India, if one 
can only get hold of the taps to draw it off. 

By the way, dear, and what does this mean 
about marrying ? " All we want is a wife." No 
such disloyal sentiment was ever breathed by 
me. A wife — I should as soon think of apply- 
ing the indefinite article to a Mother. At pre- 
sent I am not against marriage, but certainly not 
for it — if ever I meet the wife, the matter may 
have some interest for me. 

TO GEORGE PUTNAM' 

Burlington, May 24, '60. 
How does the Chicago platform and nomi- 
nation please the Puritans, — it shows pluck, 



i88 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and that, in an American, generally argues 
strength. Deliberately I prefer Lincoln to Sew- 
ard, especially since the latter's Capital and 
Labor speech, that shivered a little in the wind's 
eye. Lincoln is emphatic on the irrepressible 
conflict, without if o^ hut. Had Greeley's pet. 
Bates, been successful, this State, at least, would 
have gone for Douglas. Since Douglas's last 
rally in the Senate, he stands in a Samson 
Antagonistic attitude, which is attractive to the 
Northwest. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Cambridge, June 13, i860. 

Your letter from Diisseldorf was handed me 
by your father in person. In this Puritan city, 
the levity of its tone was more grating to my 
serious mind than it might have been in the 
city of Burlington. You must mend your man- 
ners, or you will be sent West yourself. 

I have come twelve hundred miles, as you 
will know, to see the matrimonial noose ad- 
justed around the first of our family. 

... I dined at your house on Monday with 

George, Stephen, and Channing. . . . G 

and C- are to appearances unchanged, but 

S has grown older, and much less solemn 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 189 

and cynical. "We had some pleasant talk ; he 
maintained that it was wiser for a penniless 
chap, who wanted to know something, to pitch 
in at once and trust to the young ravens for 
his board. I, admitting the superior magna- 
nimity of this method, but pleading a weak- 
ness for butter, which the young ravens do not 
supply, and urging that, in my case, at least the 
education, which five or ten years among men 
and things would give to my character, was 
worth more than what I should pick up from 
ever so great an application to books. Of 
course, we could not agree, but he had rather 
the best of the argument, so I shall have to 
knock him in the practical result. 

It was so refreshing to get a letter inviting 
advice that I sent you an answer, equally re- 
freshing, refusing to offer a crumb. Don't bother 
with plans, but be governed by circumstance. 
Damn it, a man who has got himself up as 
much as you have, ought to be happy enough 
anywhere. Even I manage that, since I was 
abroad, and as for use, — mind your own busi- 
ness, and you cannot help being useful. 

What a gaudy summer you and John will 
have. If you are in Paris together, go and enjoy 
my Giorgione on the left-hand wall as you enter 



190 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the square room at the Louvre, — an allegorical 
representation of effect of music and sweet 
sounds, I take it. Also Titian's Entombment, 
which seems to me much finer than the one in 
the Manfrini at Venice, which we saw together. 

Give my love to Johnny, and perhaps, when 
he feels like it, he will save a sketch for me. 
Only but one, and a little wee one. Let him 
do just as he pleases, however. Eight years 
from now I shall be able to enjoy that Italian 
villa with him. 

As to dogs. Dogs are my weakness, especially 
terriers, as you know, but I am too poor to 
stand the expense. If you can get a fellow cheap 
and send him home by sailing vessel, I shall 
perhaps be able to take him off your hands. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Burlington, June 30, '60. 

It is interesting, is it not, to see Seward's 
*' irrepressible conflict" so speedily illustrated 
at Baltimore. The quadrangular fight may 
result in the election of the worst man of the 
eight. General Lane of Oregon ; but I hope 
that Lincoln will make a good enough run to 
prevent the choice going to the House or Sen- 
ate. The Republican party is now so old that 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 191 

its followers have fallen into line, — and many 
will now vote for the candidate who four years 
ago would have gone for Douglas, had he stood 
in his present attitude towards the South. The 
wisdom in selecting Lincoln is now apparent, — 
a man from any other section of the country 
would have stood no chance in the Northwest 
against Douglas, whose personal popularity is 
immense. 

TO J. N. DENISON ' 

Burlington, October 25, '60. 

I know I may assume without vanity that 
you will be sorry to hear I have resigned my 
place on B. & M. — I know it because I am 
sorry myself to tell you so, though I am chan- 
ging to a business which has always had the 
strongest attractions for me. 

I have never got over the "iron-fever," and 
when a place was offered me at Mt. Savage, 
though the pecuniary prospect was no better 
than at Burlington, the chance to become an 
iron-master was too good to be refused. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 
Mt. Savage, Maryland, Dec. 28, i860. 

My dear Boy, — . . . If you have any re- 
spectable mode of getting through your days, 



192 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and do not feel yourself in danger of becoming a 
demned disreputable, dissatisfied loafer, I should 
advise you to be in no hurry to plunge into 
trade. Cotton is unthroned, but Corn is not 
yet king, and meanwhile Chance rules. The 
South is just now a mere mob, and no man can 
tell whither a mob may rush. This only is 
certain, that whatsoever course is most to be 
avoided, that Mr. Buchanan will select. If war 
is possible J. B. will make it a sure thing, and 
in case of war so many new doors to wealth will 
be opened, and so many old ones be closed, 
it seems to me it would be unwise to be in a 
hurry. Hold your horses until after March 4th 
at any rate. 

. . . Much obliged for your suggestion of 
wines — but get thou behind me, Satan ! A man 
in debt must drink water.' 

TO HIS MOTHER 
Mt. Savage, [Maryland,] Jan. 27, '61. 

Living in a border state, politics are person- 
ally too interesting for me to enjoy the papers. 
It is hard to see clearly, but I fear Phillips was 
more than half right in his denunciation of 
Seward's speech; it was certainly a stultification 
of his previous course, more worthy of a politi- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 193 

cal dodger than a statesman. The best explana- 
tion I have seen of it, is that it was the change 
of foot from offensive to defensive. The speech 
may save the Union, but I will never give its 
author my vote for any high office. We want 
higher thinking than that in times like the 
present. I fear the London " Times " is right in 
saying that the salt and savour of the Union is 
gone out of it, no matter how the event turns. 
One thing is clear^ that the South have struck 
a blow at their Cotton King which he will never 
get well over. The mischief is already done. 
Cotton must and will be raised elsewhere, too. 
Whether or no the agitators succeed in their 
political game of brag, it is certain they will 
repent hereafter the damage to their material 
interests in the Union or out of it. Have you 
seen South Carolina's tax-laws? they are as 
ruinous to trade or manufactures as Duke Alva's 
laws in Holland. 

TO JOHN M. FORBES 

Mt. Savage, February 11, 1861. 

My dear Mr. Forbes, — I was delighted 
to see your name among the Massachusetts 
Commissioners — and very glad to hear that 
you were going to take Mrs. Forbes and the 



194 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

young ladies with you.' If all the Representa- 
tives and Commissioners would show the same 
confidence in the good intentions of Maryland 
and Virginia towards the Capital, it might have 
a good effect — but perhaps it would be unsafe 
to trust too many ladies together at a Peace 
Conference even. 

I see that in some of the Western Delega- 
tions, there are more " Generals " than " Judges." 
I hope this does not indicate fight. 

If Massachusetts stands where Charles Francis 
Adams has put her, it seems to me she will be 
right, and will look right in history. I did not 
know till now that Webster was so nearly cor- 
rect in his 7th of March speech. I have always 
supposed he stretched the facts to suit his 
purposes. 

We had a Union meeting in this county some 
three weeks ago which was more anti-slavery 
than Faneuil Hall dares to be — but this seems 
by no means the feeling throughout the State. 
I doubt if any compromise which did not vir- 
tually acknowledge the right of secession would 
be acceptable here : and yet with this right ac- 
knowledged, will not the credit of the General 
Government and of many of the States be badly 
damaged abroad — will not New York and 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 195 

Massachusetts be asked to endorse the Federal 
securities ? 

As to the extreme South — I suppose Ben- 
jamin & Co.,' after the raid on the New Orleans 
mint, will scarcely come back unless we all ex- 
press through the Constitution our approbation 
and admiration of stealing. It seems likely now 
that we shall avoid a war with them ; but will not 
the fighting mania they have encouraged force 
them into an attack on Cuba or Nicaragua — 
and thus bring about a war with some strong 
foreign power which will enable us to re-cement 
the Union on our terms ? I sincerely hope that 
Lincoln will not consult too nicely what is ac- 
ceptable even to the Border States, but will take 
his stand on the principles which the framers 
of the Constitution stood upon, and if there 
comes a collision, call upon the Border States 
alone to aid him — I believe they would at once 
rally to sustain him, even in a course which 
they would now pronounce totally ««acceptable. 

As my views are taken from the New York 
papers, they will probably be novel to you. 

In fact, I write chiefly to express a faint hope 
that we may see you and the ladies at Mt. 
Savage. Mr. Graham tells me that he has in- 
vited you. In these dull times I cannot be ex- 



196 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

pected to have acquired very much information 
about the manufacturing of Iron, but I should 
like very much to go over the ground with you. 
If the works are ever to go on, I am well satis- 
fied with my change from Iowa — I think there 
are practical economies to be introduced in al- 
most every department. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Mt. Savage, March 28, '61. 

Dana's speech was excellently manly, — but 
events move so rapidly now, that the matters 
he most dwells on have lost their prominence. 
Who cares now about the slavery question ? 
Secession, and the new Oligarchy built upon it, 
have crowded it out. Lincoln must act soon, 
or forfeit his claim to our regard: he should 
call Congress together at once and demand 
power to collect the revenue, or permission to 
acknowledge the Cotton Confederacy, — the 
alternative to be accompanied by a recommen- 
dation to so amend the Constitution as to make 
it clear that the Nation is one Nation, and the 
government a real government. It is absurd to 
talk of «<3//o»/3/ deliberation with seven States 
in open revolution; but if attempted, not Slavery 
but Secession should be forever laid. Let the 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 197 

States that claim it as a right make a Confeder- 
acy, and the States that do not claim it a Union. 
I think Seward will soon begin to look foolish 
with his policy — its inevitable result seems to 
me a reaction and a war. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Mt. Savage, April 15, *6i. 

Do not send the box yet — this war news is 
so startling that I do not quite know where I 
am, — I should be sorry to see the box mis- 
carry and find itself in a Southern-Confederacy 
State. 

I fear our Government will be hard pushed 
for the next six months — it can raise 75,000 
men easily enough, but can it use them after 
they are raised ? I am not over hopeful, dear, — 
it may be my liver again. 



LETTERS 
IV 

THE SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER 

Smite now, smite now in the noontide ! 

Ride on through the hosts of men ! 
Lest the dear remembrance perish. 

And to-day not come again. 

Sigurd the Volsung. 



He, doomed to go in company with Pain 
And Fear and Bloodshed, miserable train. 
Turns his necessity to glorious gain ; 
In face of these doth exercise a power 
Which is our human nature's highest dower ; 
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves 
Of their bad influence, and their good receives. 

Character of the Happy Warrior. 



IV 
THE SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER 

TO HON. CHARLES SUMNER 

Washington, April 23, '61. 

Dear Sir, — Have you at your disposal any 
appointment in the Army which you would be 
willing to give me ? 

I speak and write English, French, and Ital- 
ian, and read German and Spanish : knew once 
enough of Mathematics to put me at the head of 
my class in Harvard — though now I may need 
a little rubbing up : am a tolerable proficient 
with the small sword and the singlestick : and 
can ride a horse as far and bring him in as fresh 
as any other man. I am twenty-six years of age, 
and believe I possess more or less of that moral 
courage about taking responsibility which seems 
at present to be found only in Southern officers. 

I scarcely know to whom to refer you, — but 
either Mr. J. M. Forbes, or my Uncle, James 
Russell Lowell, will put you in the way of 
hearing more about my qualifications. 

If you have no appointment at your disposal. 



202 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

perhaps you could get me one from Iowa or 
even Maryland. I have been living in the lat- 
ter State for a little over six months, in charge of 
a rolling mill at Mount Savage. I heard of the 
trouble at Baltimore and of the action of Gov- 
ernor Hicks on Saturday, and at once gave up 
my place and started for Washington, and was 
fortunate enough to get through here yester- 
day, after several detentions. 

I am trying to get an appointment on the 
Volunteer staff — my companion, Mr. Stewart, 
an Englishman, was yesterday named aide-de- 
camp to Colonel Stone in command of the dis- 
trict troops : it was a lucky hit, and I fear I 
shall not make as good a one. 

Whether the Union stands or falls, I believe 
the profession of arms will henceforth be more 
desirable and more respected than it has been 
hitherto : of course, I should prefer the artillery. 
I believe, with a week or two of preparation, I 
could pass the examinations. 

Our mails are cut off — but Gurowski tells 
me he has means of getting letters through, 
and I shall ask him to enclose this. Any reply 
might be addressed to Gurowski's care.' 
Yours respectfully, 
Charles Russell Lowell, Jr. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 203 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Washington, April 24, '6i. 

My dear Mother, — I was fortunate enough 
to be in Baltimore last Sunday and to be here 
at present : how Jim and Henry will envy 
me. 

By a happy succession of blunders, the Ad- 
ministration has got into a delightful embar- 
rassment — it may pull through — mais fen 
doute. 

to EDWARD JACKSON 

Washington, April 24, '61. 

I have comfe down here anticipating that Lin- 
coln's " masterly inactivity " would soon force 
a crisis. The Mount Savage Company owes 
me about $1^1 Si but could not give me any 
currency that would pass in Washington. I am 
going to buy a horse, and shall probably have 
to draw on you (or Mother) for the money 
necessary for that and for my board and lodg- 
ing for a month or so — shall draw for $225 
or $250 probably. If you will pay the draft, 
I will settle as soon as I get home. I have 
no position yet, but hope to get a place on the 
staff by and by. 



204 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO HIS BROTHER JAMES 

Washington, April 29, '61. 

I have just got the promise from Cameron 
of a 2d Lieutenancy — don't yet know in what 
branch. Hope to get into the Flying Artillery 
or Artillery of some sort. 

I have had no letters from home for seven- 
teen days and do not know how Mother feels. 
I am sure that she will agree with me that, 
come what may, the army must hereafter be a 
more important power in the State than hith- 
erto — and if Southern gentlemen enlist, North- 
ern gentlemen must also. I send her and Father 
my best love. Am living here in her two flan- 
nel shirts and six collars — and Grandmother's 
neck-cloth — no trunk. Mother's bag. 

I need not tell her that I am not in the least 
bloodthirsty — and not nearly so hopeful about 
the good results of this war as our Massachu- 
setts Volunteers — but I believe that it will do 
us all much real good in the end. 

TO JOHN M. FORBES 

Washington, May 6, 1861. 

As soon as I find out exactly what Govern- 
ment will do about Maryland volunteers, I 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 205 

shall make an effort to stir up my friends in 
Alleghany County. I wish to make sure that 
the Government will muster them into service, 
and will be ready with arms, accoutrements, and 
uniforms, and, above all, with a proper commis- 
sariat the moment the men present themselves 
in sufficient numbers at Chambersburg. With 
proper management, I am sure two regiments 
could easily be raised in Maryland. Two or 
three hundred men could be had in Alleghany 
County. 

TO JOHN M. FORBES 

Washington, May 10, 1861. 
An agent ought to be sent here permanently 
to manage Massachusetts interests. A vast deal 
of official and unofficial time and patience is 
wasted by new men going over and over old 
ground. Where so much is to be done it ought 
to be done by the best man and with the best 
tact. Otherwise it will be undone or done wrong. 
Judge Hoar was admirable. He always per- 
sisted till he got his answer. I should think 
some equally good man ought to be put here 
at once. Large quantities of Massachusetts Bri- 
gade stores are coming round here from An- 
napolis. ... I shall remain here for a week at 
least, and perhaps two or three. Any service I 



2o6 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

can render meanwhile will be a real gratification. 
I believe I am the only one of our family who 
is not doing or giving something, and I feel 
quite ashamed at wasting so much time about 
a personal matter. Will you yourself request 
whoever comes as agent to call on me for what 
work I can do ? * 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Washington, May 13, '61. 
I feel confident I am all right for a commis- 
sion in the first batch of civilians — since my 
application none have been given except to the 
graduating class of West Point. When I am 
fairly appointed, I shall want you to send me a 
copy of " Oakfield"^ with your love and fond- 
est wishes — in exchange perhaps I will send my 
photograph. Although I did not consult you, 
dear, in coming here, I was very glad indeed 
to have your letter and Father's approving. I 
think, too, you will agree that I am right in 
trying to enter the regular army, even with lower 
rank than I might get in one of the three-year 
regiments. I have thought from the first — and 
in this I am confirmed by what I see here — 
that while the volunteers will furnish fully their 
share of military talent, and more than their share 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 207 

of food for powder, it will fall mainly on the 
Regular organization to keep the armies in the 
field and to keep them moving. Military sci- 
ence I have absolutely none, — military talent 
I am too ignorant yet to recognize, — but my 
education and experience in business and in the 
working of men may, if wanted, be made availa- 
ble at once in th.& Regular 2irm.y : the Acting Com- 
missary for this whole military district is only a 
Lieutenant of Artillery. Of course I am too old 
to be tickled with a uniform, and too apathetic 
to get up such a feeling against the worst traitor 
among them as to desire personally to slay him 
— but, like every young soldier, I am anxious for 
one battle as an experience : after that, I shall be 
content to bide my time, working where I can do 
most service and learning all I can from observa- 
tion and from books. I believe no one is more 
anxious to see the Government "go through" 
than I am — I want to see the Baltimore traitors 
put on trial at once, and armed rebellion every- 
where crushed out; but I cannot help feeling that 
the task is a long one and of uncertain issue — 
and whether we are to have a long war and sub- 
due them, or a short war and a separation, it is 
evident that the Army is to assume a new posi- 
tion among us — it will again become a profes- 



2o8 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

sion. Hence my anxiety to get into the Artillery : 
if the change is to come, I want to be in position 
to take the best advantage of it. 

I have no doubt that Jim on duty at the 
Arsenal ^ has a far better experience of military 
realities than I have here. The Government 
troops parade here and crowds stare at them — 
in Alexandria (six miles off, — I was down there 
last week) the Virginia troops parade and crowds 
gape at them^ — as to fancying any hostile rela- 
tion between them, it is almost impossible, and 
yet I firmly believe there will be a collision 
within three weeks. 

My room-mate, Stewart, was at Richmond 
(protected by an English passport) last Friday 
— drove all about the town and visited the 
camps in the neighborhood : he reports them 
to be in quite large force and very anxious for 
a fight, thoroughly convinced that they were 
fighting the battles of Freedom ! 

[On the envelope.] I shall always hail from 
Massachusetts hereafter. 

TO JOHN M. FORBES 

Washington, May 21, 1 861. 

I shall not try to thank you for all you have 
done for me during the last ten days — I felt it 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 209 

more yesterday on getting letters . . . one from 
yourself, one from Judge Hoar, and one from 
home. Still, I do not change my purpose about 
going into the Artillery, and am only sorry that 
there has been a misunderstanding. ... I thought 
I had made it clear to Judge Hoar, and clearer 
to Mr. Burt, that I would do what I could for 
a short time, but only until the right man could 
be sent out permanently. He should be a man 
of age and weight, — should be able to put the 
screws on Cameron occasionally. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Washington, May 25, /6l. 

After the movement yesterday across the river, 
all passing to and fro was forbidden ; but Mr. 
Dalton and myself, by going up to Georgetown 
and making interest with the Irishmen of the 
69th, who have a rather Milesian idea of sen- 
try's duty, succeeded in getting into Virginia. 
We visited the earthworks and many of the 
camps, and dined at Arlington House on corn 
pone and milk. There were no troops yester- 
day within two miles of Arlington, and the place 
was just in the prime of its Spring beauty. I 
have seen no place like it in this country — for 
position and for well-improved natural advan- 



210 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

tages. I suppose to-day it is occupied, and in 
spite of its importance and of its owner's trea- 
son, I cannot think of it with much pleasure. 

How are Jim Savage and Henry coming on ? 
I hear there is some hitch about their regiment 
— nothing serious, I hope. 

1 have been in Washington more than four 
weeks — in spite of fairest promises, I have not 
got my commission yet, but still have faith. If 
I have been of any use to the Massachusetts 
troops, I am very glad of it. 

I wish our people would not feel so very 
anxious about their comfort. Their health and 
morale is excellent and they are as efficient as 
any troops here. I am sure you do not worry 
so much about my comfort, and I do not see why 
other mothers should. The greatest kindness 
to our troops now is to teach them to use what 
they have. 

TO CHARLES E. PERKINS 

Washington, June 7, '61. 

I am down for a Captaincy of Cavalry and 
have good hopes of being put upon N. P. 
Banks's staff: but I cannot say I take any great 
-pleasure in the contemplation of the future. I 
fancy you feel much as I do about the profit- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 211 

ableness of a soldier's life, and would not think 
of trying it, were it not for a muddled and 
twisted idea that somehow or other this fight 
was going to be one in which decent men ought 
to engage for the sake of humanity , — I use the 
word in its ordinary sense. It seems to me that 
within a year the Slavery question will again 
take a prominent place, and that many cases 
will arise where we may get fearfully in the 
wrong if we put our cause wholly in the hands 
of fighting men and Foreign Legions. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Washington, June 9, *6l. 

Banks leaves here to-night for Baltimore and 
has promised to write in a day or two if I can 
be of use to him. Until I get my commission, 
he thinks of putting me at Baltimore as Censor 
over the telegraphic communications — a sug- 
gestion of Mr. Forbes. I believe I can be of 
use there. 

Thanks to Wilson and Sumner, I am down 
for a Captaincy of Cavalry. There may be a 
slip, but the thing is as sure as anything of 
that sort can be made in Washington. When 
I shall get the commission signed I cannot 
guess. 



212 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

If I get sick or wounded at any time, I pro- 
mise to have Anna out at once to nurse me — 
she is a good little girl.' 

I am glad Father is pleased with my military 
prospects — I wish I knew as much about the 
business as he does, or even Jim must. A more 
ignorant Captain could scarcely be found. I 
suppose you scarcely fancy the life — though 
like a good Mother you don't say so. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Washington, June 17, '61. 

I am not so hopeful about the future as you 
are — the Administration seem to me sadly in 
want of a policy — the war goes on well, but 
the country will soon want to know exactly 
what the war is for. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Washington, June 19, '61. 

Don't let any one blame Governor Andrew 
— he is good and thoughtful, and if he is 
sometimes misled by good nature, he is never 
hampered by ulterior personal aims; all tbe 
faculty of ways and means in the world, if so 
hampered, is a curse to the country. At least 
I am sometimes tempted to say so.^ 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 213 

TO HIS MOTHER 

New York, July i, '61. 

Dear Mother, — Got my orders this morn- 
ing all right — have taken the oath of allegiance, 
and signified my acceptance of the appointment, 
— so I am now fairly in the U. S. Army. I shall 
leave here to-morrow evening for Pittsburg — 
learn from Captain Cram of our Regiment that 
the captains will probably be put on recruiting 
duty for a month or more. This will not be a 
very pleasant occupation for the summer months, 
but the barracks and riding school at Pittsburg 
are not ready, and anything is better than idle- 
ness or Washington. 

Dr. Stone is very impatient under Scott's 
wise delay. 

It seems to me that the necessity for mar- 
tial law throughout Virginia and Maryland is 
daily becoming stronger. Our Army is becom- 
ing demoralized — Union men are alienated 
and treason is encouraged by even Banks's 
operations in Baltimore : he can arrest men, 
but what can he do with them without martial 
law? 

You would not like to see me in uniform — 
I look like a butcher. 



214 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO HIS MOTHER 
Franklin, Pennsylvania, July 15, '61. 

I am just in from a ride of thirty-four miles — 
have averaged over twenty-five for the last eight 
days. Whether you fancy my soldiering or not, 
you would be glad to see how hard I am getting 
in this mountain air with thumping about on a 
country horse. We have about twenty recruits 
secured — a very good beginning : now that a nu- 
cleus is formed, I think they will collect rapidly. 

I shall start on Wednesday for Warren, 
Trumbull County, Ohio : this is the Western 
Reserve, and I believe is settled by Yankees. 
I must say I shall be glad to escape from the 
Democratic atmosphere of Pennsylvania; party 
lines are as strong as ever they were in Franklin 
— it is said there are nearly one hundred sub- 
scribers to the " Day Book " here. As I am now 
a " National " man and forbidden to talk politics, 
I listen in silence — but it is not pleasant. 

TO HIS MOTHER 
Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, July 20, 1861. 

I am " located " (or " stationed " I believe is 
the proper word now) in what is called the 
Western Reserve : a glorious place to recruit 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 215 

it must have been two months ago, but unfor- 
tunately all the young men were too patriotic 
to wait for a chance in the Regular Cavalry and 
went oif in the Volunteers and are now fighting 
in Virginia: none but married men or elderly 
men are left — three companies went from this 
little town and as many more from the south- 
ern part of the county, I believe. 

This is Ben Wade's district — quite a refresh- 
ing change after Pennsylvania. 

The news from the seat of war is also cheer- 
ing, now that Scott's columns have started; they 
seem to do their work well, but I think they will 
yet find that the Rebels will fight well before 
they fall back on Richmond — especially if it be 
true that Johnson has succeeded in joining them. 

TO C. E. PERKINS 
Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, July 21, '61. 

I sometimes doubt whether I have done quite 
the right thing myself, indeed I have of late 
begun to doubt seriously whether I ever did 
anything right. I have a very good chance to 
" loafe and view my own soul " just now. I am 
here recruiting and do not pick up men very 
fast. It is dreadfully tedious — but not to be 
despised as an experience. I am now in the 



2i6 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

" Western Reserve " and among men who are 
awake to the position and rather ahead of the 
Administration. It is quite a relief after Penn- 
sylvania, where one still hears of nothing but 
plunder and party lines. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Warren, July 22, '61. 

I write out of sheer dulness; a mounted offi- 
cer without a horse, a Captain without a Lieuten- 
ant or a command, a recruiting officer without a 
Sergeant and with but one enhsted man, a hu- 
man being condemned to a country tavern and 
familiar thrice a day with dried apples and " a 
little piece of the beef-steak" — have I not an 
excuse for dulness ? I am known here as " the 
Agent of that Cavalry Company" — and the 
Agent's office is the resort of half the idle clerks 
and daguerreotype artists in town — but those 
fellows don't enlist." 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Warren, Aug. 5, '61. 

I am expecting daily to get official notice to 
enlist for three years instead of five — had I had 
this three weeks ago, I could ere this have filled 
my company, which unfortunately is now only 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 217 

half filled. I hope to receive orders to move 
my rendezvous at the same time. 

You seem to feel worse about the Bull Run 
defeat than I do. To me, the most discouraging 
part of the whole is the way in which com- 
pany officers have too many of them behaved 
since the affair — skulking about Washington, 
at Willard's or elsewhere, letting their names 
go home in the lists of killed or missing, eat- 
ing and sleeping and entirely ignoring the com- 
mands of their superiors, and the moral and 
physical needs of their men. I regard it as a 
proof of something worse than loose discipline 
— as a proof that those officers, at least, have no 
sense of the situation and no sentiment for their 
cause: if there are to be many such, we are 
whipped from the outset. Fancy Jim or Willy 
behaving so ! I know that my Southern class- 
mates in the Rebel ranks would never have 
treated their companies of poor white trash so 
contemptuously : they respect them too much 
as means for a great end. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Warren, Aug. 8, '61. 

I should think the hardships of the poor wives 
would interfere more or less with recruiting — I 



2i8 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

hope it does. — What will you do with ten more 
regiments of families to support next winter ? ^ 
... I am glad you are getting old enough 
to feel the beauty of youth, — I have felt it 
for some years — I have a perfect longing for 
young things. I am afraid the Colonel will 
object to many of my recruits that they are too 
youthful, but I cannot help the tendency. 

TO HIS MOTHER 
Camp near Bladensburg, Sept. 9, '61. 

You see I am at Washington first, after all. 
I was ordered from Rochester, August 31st, the 
order stating that my company was ready to 
organize and march at once. The first train from 
Rochester was September 2d, and on reaching 
Pittsburg I found that my company had gone 
forward under a lieutenant — that the camp at 
Pittsburg was broken up, and a new camp 
formed at Bladensburg. I went on with Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Emory, overtook the company 
at Baltimore — took command of the detach- 
ment (230, and 44 horses) and brought them 
into camp Wednesday at midnight, in a pouring 
rain, without tents or great coats. Fortunately 
it was very warm, and nobody has suffered. We 
got our tents on Friday afternoon. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 219 

We have about 650 men now in camp, and 
44 horses — besides team horses. Only two 
companies have arms. The horses are assigned 
to my Company ; this makes the labour greater 
at first, but pleases the men. • 

TO C. E. PERKINS 

Camp, Sixth Cavalry, East of Capitol, 
Washington, Dec. 7, '61. 

By Jove, old fellow, I wish I could see you 
for an hour or two. I hardly know myself in 
this new style of life, and though I fancy it 
much, I still see everything " through a glass 
darkly." I feel as though I were in a dream, 
and positively yearn for some old fact, like 
yourself, occasionally. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Camp East of the Capitol, 
Dec. 25, 1 861. 

My DEAR Henry, — ... I hear your regi- 
ment is nearly ready to start South. I hope 
you may be ordered here and not to Texas or 
Canada. 

A merry Christmas and happy New Year to 
you, old fellow. 



220 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO HIS FATHER 
Camp East of Capitol, Jan. 23, '62. 
I don't know whether the newspapers, which 
have so many facts to telegraph, have said any- 
thing about the rainy, muddy thaw which has 
been the most important fact in the Army of 
the Potomac since the first of January. It is 
particularly hard on cavalry, encamped on a 
clay bank — the horse splashed with wet clay 
after three hours' drill is not a cheerful spectacle 
to the recruit who has to clean him — it opens 
his eyes to some of the advantages of infantry. 
Our fellows, however, are kept in spirits by the 
constant hope of an "advance" — an advance 
where, or upon what, they do not stop to 
think; the regular cavalry in the Army of the 
Potomac are brigaded together under General 
Cooke,' and are all kept upon this side of the 
river : for more than three weeks they have had 
orders to be in readiness at a few hours' notice : 
but the country on the other side is so unfavour- 
able to mounted troops, except in small bodies, 
as vedettes and patrols, that I am inchned to 
think these orders were only a ruse to deceive 
Congressmen, and perhaps to get into the 
papers, and so find their way to the rebels. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 221 

You will be glad to hear that the Colonel is 
sometimes pleased to compliment me, and has 
even talked of rearranging the squadrons so as 
to give me command of one — to get a squad- 
ron is the height of a Cavalry Captain's ambi- 
tion. My chance for some time, however, is 
still a very slim one. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Harrison's Bar, July 18, 1862. 

Your two last letters have told me more about 
Jimmy than I had learned from his friends 
here — they seem to bring me very near to him 
and also to you and Father — nearer than I 
might ever have been, had the little fellow lived. 
It is very pleasant to have had him with you so 
entirely last winter. I wish I had seen more of 
him on the Peninsula. 

I think that the officers of his regiment feel 
his loss very much, for besides being a gallant 
officer, they all tell me he was a good one, 
which is much rarer — his noble behaviour af- 
ter he received his wound has impressed them 
very much. George will tell you about this; 
— even Palfrey cannot speak of him without 
tears.* 

Do, dear Mother, write to me a little oftener 



222 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and try and help me to be a little more like 
what you saw me as a little child.- 

Your really loving Son. 

4 

TO HENRY LEE, JR. 

Harrison's Landing, July 23, '62. 

I have no doubt I could get permission from 
the War Department to take a Massachusetts 
regiment, if offered me, and I should have no 
hesitation in making an application to Governor 
Andrew, if that is the proper course — unless 
you think that better men are likely to be 
appointed. 

I have had my training in what I may now 
without boasting call a " crack " regiment, — 
through the whole campaign, I have commanded 
a squadron, though not by my regimental rank 
entitled to it, and in campaign you know a 
squadron of cavalry is quite as much an inde- 
pendent command as a regiment of infantry. I 
can safely refer to General Emory for testimony 
as to the discipline and efficiency of my squad- 
ron and as to my general qualifications,' — and 
to General Stoneman for evidence as to what I 
have done. 

Perhaps you think me too young — it is eight 
years to-day since I graduated — / have to apol- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 223 

ogize to myself for being so old. Younger men 
than I have done good service in command of 
regiments and even brigades during this cam- 
paign, witness my friend Barlow/ 

I hear there is some chance of Henry's be- 
ing ordered North : I hope he may come to 
the " Army of the Potomac," — though I am 
convinced by observation that, here on the 
Peninsula, infantry is the arm for hard fighting. 

Since we have been at this place I have been 
getting a little experience of Staff life and duty, 
being now Acting A. D. C. to General McClel- 
lan — it is an honourable position and valuable 
in the way of education, but I much prefer a 
command. 

TO HIS MOTHER 
Harrison's Landing, July 27, '62. 
... It Is painful to think that you were still 
in suspense about dear Jimmy. George will 
have told you, before this, all that he learned 
from the surgeon who was with him. Nelson's 
Farm is still far within the enemy's line, but I 
hope that we may move in that direction some- 
time. I am glad the little fellow was not moved 
to Richmond, merely to die and to be buried 
where we never could find him — he would 
have felt it. Palfrey told me about his taking 



224 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Jimmy's sword — it was a sacred thing to him, 
and he carried it through some heavy marches 

— he was crying as he talked of it. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Aug. 9, 1862. 
I was very glad to get your letters of Friday 
and Saturday, with photograph of Jimmy, all 
safe : it is a great thing to have so good a like- 
ness. I was out on Monday with Hooker and 
Sedgwick's reconnaissance to Malvern Hill : 
early Tuesday morning we passed over the 
Nelson Farm and not very far from the house 
where Jim was carried ; unfortunately the fir- 
ing had already commenced in the front, and I 
could not stop even a moment, but I saw the 
place and the roads, and shall have much more 
chance of getting there again, if ever the oppor- 
tunity offers. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Headquarters, Army of the Potomac, 
Sept. 19, 1862. 

We had a severe fight day before yesterday 

— a good many officers on our side wounded 
because the men in some brigades behaved 
badly. Frank Palfrey is wounded, not seriously, 

— Paul Revere, slightly wounded, — Wendell 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 225 

Holmes shot through the neck, a narrow escape, 
but not dangerous now, — Hallowell badly hit 
in the arm, but he will save the limb, — Dr. 
Revere is killed, — also poor Wilder Dwight, 
— little Crowninshield (Frank's son) shot in the 
thigh, not serious, — Bob Shaw was struck in 
the neck by a spent ball, not hurt at all^ — 
Bill Sedgwick very badly wounded.' A good 
many others of my friends besides are wounded, 
but none I believe in whom you take an in- 
terest. None of General McClellan's aides 
were hit.* 

This is not a pleasant letter. Mother : we 
have gained a victory — a complete one, but not 
so decisive as could have been wished. 

TO J. M. FORBES 

Headquarters, Army of the Potomac, 

Friday Evening, Sept. 19. 

My dear Mr. Forbes, — I have just re- 
ceived your letter of 13th. We had a severe 
fight here on Tuesday, and a battle on Wednes- 
day in which the loss among our officers was 
very serious. 

I have had my usual good luck, but shall 
have to buy a new sabre and shall have one 
horse the less to ride for a month or two. 



226 CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 

Young Bob was in the fight of Tuesday and the 
afternoon of Wednesday, but was untouched.' 

Our victory was a complete one, but only deci- 
sive in so far as it clears Maryland. Had Har- 
per's Ferry not been yielded, this battle would 
not have been fought, — Jackson and A. P. 
Hill marched on Tuesday from Harper's Ferry, 
and reinforced Lee, Longstreet, and D. H. Hill. 
On Wednesday morning we had their whole 
army in front of us — about 80,000 on our side 
and not less than 100,000 on theirs;^ we took 
the positions we attempted and in most cases 
held them ; the enemy at no point occupied 
the field of battle at dark, though, in the neu- 
tral ground between the lines, the dead and 
wounded of both sides at some points lay min- 
gled. During Thursday we received reinforce- 
ments of fifteen or twenty thousand men, and 
should have renewed the fight to-day, had not 
the enemy withdrawn. They commenced mov- 
ing away about 9 p. m. and by daybreak none 
but stragglers and wounded were on this side 
thePotomac. Remember that McClellan started 
from Washington with a demoralized army, and 
I think you will admit that the campaign has 
been very creditable to him. 



LETTERS 

V 

GUARDING THE BORDER. MARRIAGE 

The men and women mated for that time 
Tread not the soothing mosses of the plain ; 
Their hands are joined in sacrifice sublime. 
Their feet firm set in upward paths of pain. 

ne Loyal Woman's No. 



More brave for this, that he hath much to love. 

Wordsworth. 



GUARDING THE BORDER. 
MARRIAGE 

TO J. M. FORBES 

Berlin, Maryland, Oct. 30, 1862. 

My dear Mr. Forbes, — I hardly know 
what to say to your plan : if the question were 
simply. Will you take the Colonelcy of the 
Second Massachusetts Cavalry, a regiment to 
be raised on same terms and in same way as 
the First Massachusetts ? — I should have no 
hesitation in saying yes: but Mr. Lawrence's 
offer I hardly see my way clear to accept. 

I St. The Battalion J as an independent organi- 
zation, is not recognized by the War Depart- 
ment : if I get permission to take command 
of such an organization, it can be only through 
improper influence and in defiance of General 
Orders, and I do not care to attempt it : — 
leave of absence to take command of a regi- 
ment is authorized, and I should not hesitate 
to apply for it. 2d. I have always thought I was 



230 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

more useful on General McClellan's staff than 
I should be serving with my own regiment * 

— but with my own regiment as captain, I 
should now almost always have command of a 
battalion: were I then to accept Mr. Lawrence's 
offer, I should merely be exchanging active 
service for at least a temporary inaction, for the 
sake of getting rank and pay of Major. I want 
to keep my military record clearer than that. 
3d. [A Boston gentleman] speaks of Mr. L.'s 
battalion as "a battalion for home use — i. e. 
in the militia." Does he really mean for home 
use when we are so short of cavalry in this 
Army — or does he merely mean that it is 
composed of nine months' men ? My honest 
opinion is, that it is an injustice to the Govern- 
ment to raise any cavalry for so short a period ; 
still, if it is decided to do so, that would not make 
me decline a command. Two months' drill and 
two months in the field under a good command- 
ing officer will make a regiment of some account 

— but I would not take any command which 
was meant for home use. 4th. Mr. L. has the 
principal voice in naming officers — would any 
influence afterwards be used to keep in position 
officers proved incompetent, and for whose re- 
moval all proper military steps had been taken ? ^ 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 231 

You will see from the above that while I 
should like very much to take command of a 
Second Massachusetts Cavalry, — I am unwilling 
to say " yes " to the present offer, unless (or 
until) the affair assumes such shape that the 
Governor can ask for me, from the War De- 
partment, leave of absence to take command 
of a regiment. 

I have been very much obliged to you for 
several letters, but I have never answered your 
questions. Only, if General McClellan silently 
shoulders all the errors of his subordinate gen- 
erals, is it not fair to give him credit for their 
successes ? I have never been more annoyed 
than, when in Washington a month ago, to see 
the avidity with which people gathered up and 
believed Hooker's criticisms on the General, 
I did not care to open my lips against them : 
personally I like Hooker very much, but I fear 
he will do us a mischief if he ever gets a 
large command. He has got his head in the 
clouds. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Readville, Mass., Jan. 21, '63. 
... As for Porter's case : — the evidence 
leaves little doubt that Porter got " demoral- 



232 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ized," not more, probably, than you or I would 
have under the circumstances — but still danger- 
ously " demoralized." He heard Pope say the 
enemy was here, or there, or in a bag, and 
always found it quite to the contrary, and un- 
consciously he said, "This is not war, this is 
chance, I cannot do anything here," and he 
rather let things slide. He was no worse than 
twenty thousand others, but his frame of mind 
was un-officer-like and dangerous. This sort of 
feeling was growing in the army, and the Gov- 
ernment and the Country felt that it must be 
stopped. Porter was made the example.' I am 
very very sorry for him, and shall always treat 
him personally with as much regard as ever ; 
but I accept the lesson, and do not propose to 
be demoralized myself, or let any of my friends 
be, if I can help it. ... I think good and 
brave people are wanted at home now more 
than in the army. 

I was going to end there and sign " yours 
truly," but on looking over what I had written I 
thought it might give you the impression that 
I felt disappointed about the state of public 
opinion here. Not at all. In December I had 
begun to feel quite disheartened, but within 
a few weeks I think I have noticed a change. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 233 

People are waking to the fact that this is a war 
which concerns them, that whether we have 
leaders or no, there is something for every man 
to do. They are beginning to think and look 
about, and correspondingly others are begin- 
ning to think and look about how to instruct 
the people. This is difficult. You will be sur- 
prised to notice how entirely some men, whom 
we had relied upon, are lacking in public spirit, 
and how others shine out, whom we had over- 
looked. I find myself judging men entirely 
now by their standard of public spirit. It is of 
course partial and unfair so far as individuals 
are concerned, but in a time like this, one 
naturally refers everything and everybody to 
its or his effect upon the State. 

Good-bye, old fellow, and a speedy raid. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Boston,' Feb. 4, 1863. 
I am very glad to see that the Negro Army 
Bill has got so well through the House, — Gov- 
ernor Andrew is going to try a Regiment in 
Massachusetts. I am afraid he is too sanguine 
— it would be wiser to start with a smaller 
number, to be increased to a regiment in South 
Carolina, Texas, or Louisiana. The blacks here 



234 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

are too comfortable to do anything more than 
talk about freedom. I hope you are not too 

comfortable ; comfort is so " demoralizing^ 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Boston, Feb. 9, '63. 

. . . You will be very glad to hear that Bob 
Shaw is to be Colonel, and Norwood Hallo- 
well Lieutenant-Colonel of the Governor's 
Negro Regiment. It is very important that 
it should be started soberly and not spoilt 
by too much fanaticism. Bob Shaw is not a 
fanatic. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Readville, Feb. 15, '63. 
My dear Henry, — I wrote you last a most 
" quaintly moral " letter. ... I think public 
opinion here is getting stouter, more efforts are 
making to educate the great unthinking. Good 
editorials are reprinted and circulated gratis.' A 
club is now forming in Boston, a Union Club, 
to support the Government, irrespective of 
party, started by Ward, Forbes, Norton, Amos 
Lawrence, etc., etc. This seems to me a very 
promising scheme. Clubs have in all trying 
times been great levers for moving events along. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 235 

A similar club has already been started in Phila- 
delphia under equally good auspices. 

Our black regiment is likely to provoke 
discussion also, and in that way, if no other, 
to do good. Bob Shaw comes as Colonel, to 
arrive to-morrow, and Pen Hallowell as Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel (been here some days).' I have 
no idea that they can get a full regiment in 
New England, but think they can get enough 
intelligent fellows here to make a cadre for one 
or more regiments to be raised down South. 
I do not know how much you may have 
thought upon the subject, and I may send 
you a few slips to show you how we feel. I 
am very much interested without being at all 
sanguine. I think it very good of Shaw (who 
is not at all a fanatic) to undertake the thing. 
The Governor will select, or let Shaw select, 
the best white officers he can find, letting it be 
understood that black men may be commis- 
sioned as soon as any are found who are supe- 
rior to white officers who offer. The recruiting 
will be in good hands. In the Committee of 
consultation are Forbes and Lawrence ; ' in New 
York, Frank Shaw; in Philadelphia, Hallo- 
well's brother. You see this is likely to be a 
success, if any black regiment can be a success. 



236 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

If it fails, we shall all feel that tout notre pos- 
sible has been done. If it fails, it will at least 
sink from under our feet the lurking notion 
that we need not be in a hurry about doing our 
prettiest, because we can always fall back upon 
the slaves, if the worst comes to the worst. You 
remember last September, upon somewhat the 
same ground, we agreed in approving the Pro- 
clamation, however ill-timed and idle it seemed 
to us. We shall knuckle down to our work 
the sooner for it. My first battalion (five com- 
panies, 1,1^ strong) leave on Thursday for Fort 
Monroe. The battalion from California will be 
here in March. We have only about 175 more 
men to get here to reach a minimum. Now that 
Stoneman is Chief of Cavalry, I think I can get 
where I want to, so you can see me before the 
end of the summer. 

TO MISS JOSEPHINE SHAW 

May 13, 1863. 

We are just passing Schuyler and it is only 
7^ o'clock, so we shall be at the Jersey dock 
before nine, — that I call very good luck. 
I wonder whether Berold looks at it in that 
light ; I think he '11 be glad to leave the steam- 
boat, at all events ; he is wedged in tight be- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 237 

tween Ruksh and Nig, wanting to kick both, 
but unable to raise a foot, without human sym- 
pathy (lumps of sugar), for even Robbins has 
not been able to get near him since he came on 
board. However, he was well fed and watered 
on the dock last evening, — the government 
horses, poor things, going to bed supperless. 
We had a tedious time of it packing 440 horses 
where not over 200 ought to go, and running 
to and fro in the dark with miscellaneous bag- 
gage enough "for an army," none of which 
seemed to belong to anybody. We finally cast 
loose at half past twelve and rested, feeling that 
no more men could slip off for eight hours ; at 
roll-call this a. m. only one deserter is reported 
and he is supposed to be on board. The men 
(and officers too) after their good night's work 
and poor night's sleep look — well, I think it 
would take a very long typhoid fever to make 
them look interesting even to you ; from a 
glimpse I have had of the horses, I think they 
will look very interesting. 

TO MISS SHAW 
Camp East of Capitol, May 15, 1863. 
I date this May 15, 1863, — ought it to be 
1864? — it seems to me a month since this 



238 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

morning and at least a year since Tuesday- 
noon. The other part of my date carries 
me back a year, — for " Camp East of Capi- 
tol " was the familiar name of the barracks 
where my military young idea was taught to 
shoot. 

I wish you could look in at tea now, and see 
what a pretty scene our camp presents. You 
would be sitting on the grass at the edge of 
a very pretty orchard, in which (behind you) 
Ruksh and Nig are quietly feeding, — in front 
the ground slopes gently off and at fifty yards' 
distance commence the company lines, — from 
here you look down into these so entirely that 
not a man can swear or a horse switch his tail 
in anger without our knowing it. The tents 
are in three rows, the two companies of a squad- 
ron being on a line, the horses of each squadron 
to the right of the tents, — stable duty is just 
over and the men are swarming about before 
getting supper. I may have forgotten how a 
camp-fire smokes, or it may be I am partial to 
the fires of my own camp (you know my weak- 
ness); certainly these camp-fires look uncom- 
monly blue — and picturesque, — even Will's' 
fellows have contrived to get up a jolly blue 
smoke. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 239 

TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL HENRY S. RUSSELL' 

Camp E. of Capitol, Washington, D. C. 
May 16, '63. 

Started precisely at 12 m. Tuesday (427 
men and officers, 437 horses), reached boat at 

5 p. M. (start earlier and feed on pier) : boat 
too small for so many horses, delay in loading, 
finally started from wharf at 1/2 a. m. Wednes- 
day — : reached Jersey City at 9 a. m. — terrible 
confusion watering and loading horses, did not 
leave by train till 5 p. m. : lost ten men here: 
had to handle all our own baggage here, as also 
the night before at Stonington. Reached Cam- 
den (opposite Philadelphia) at i a. m., Thurs- 
day ; waited two hours while R. R. men handled 
baggage and transshipped horses, crossed to 
Philadelphia by ferry, got an excellent breakfast 
at the Volunteer Relief Rooms ; ^ left by train at 

6 A. M., arrangements excellent. Reached Balti- 
more at 3 p. M., horses and baggage dragged 
through city without transshipment ; gave men 
coffee and dinner at Union Relief Rooms (164 
Eutaw St., close to Depot). Left Baltimore at 
5 p. M. and, after much delay, arrived in Wash- 
ington at 2 A. M. Friday — breakfast ready for 
men at barracks near Depot; immediately after, 



240 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

commenced unloading horses and traps, and at 
9 A. M. had horses fed and watered and on 
picket lines (saddles, &c., by them and company 
and Quartermaster property in wagons) ; at 
12 M. started for camp, which I selected, and 
before 6 p. m. officers and men were all in tents, 
and horses all at permanent lines, — total loss 
II deserters and i dead horse, — gain 6 horses! 
On the whole I recommend this route highly. 
I had a very strong guard detailed (70 men 
and officers) and kept it on duty for the trip — 
every door (to cars and yards) was guarded 
before the command entered. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Camp E. of Capitol, 
9 p. M., May 20, 1863. 

I wrote yesterday that General Casey' had 
ordered a review for to-day. In my baby inno- 
cence, I prepared him a nice one, strictly accord- 
ing to tactics, and had rehearsed with my fellows, 
moving them round by companies at a walk 
with successful solemnity; but the naughty Casey, 
when he arrived on the ground, directed me to 
take them round by platoons at a walk, and then 
at a trot. I did it, thinking that " 't were done 
when it were done " and therefore " 't were well 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 241 

it were done quickly " (Shakespeare) — but it 
was not done, — graceless Casey sent me word 
to take them round at a gallop. I smiled, — I 
knew I was well mounted and could keep ahead 
of my Command, — I knew I could take round 
most of my horses and perhaps a few of my 
men, — I smiled, for I thought of Casey's 
probable fate, — one Major-General less, dead 
of a review, ridden over by wild horses. When 
I made the last turn, I glanced backward, the 
column was half a mile wide where I could last 
see it and seemed to stretch adinfinitum. When 
I re-formed my line, there were half a dozen 
riderless horses, but straight in front in the old 
place was troublesome Casey, smiling and satis- 
fied as ever. I was disappointed, I thought 
nothing could resist that charge; I have lost 
half my faith in cavalry, and Casey, an Infantry 
General, has lived to see it. Don't blush for us, 
— we are entirely satisfied with our own appear- 
ances, — and there was only one carriage-load 
of female military judges present, so don't blush. 

TO Miss SHAW 

May 2 1 St, Taps. 

The Nile would be very pleasant, but we 
do not own ourselves and have no right to 



242 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

even wish ourselves out of harness. I do not 
think I grow any less appreciative as I grow 
older, — I hope I never may, for my own sake 
and for yours. 

TO COLONEL ROBERT G. SHAW 

Camp E. of Capitol, May 23, 1863. 

E. wrote me an account of your flag pre- 
sentation and sent the speeches : I suppose 
the responsibility of your own speech to fol- 
low prevented you from appreciating the Gov- 
ernor's speech as he was delivering it — but, 
as read, it seems full of feeling and sense, 
lofty sense and common sense — he is a 
trump. 

Your regiment has proved such an entire 
success — has given such good promise of taking 
a very high place among our Massachusetts 
regiments — that it is easy to forget the cir- 
cumstances under which you took hold of it : 
I feel like telling you now, old fellow (as an 
officer and outsider, and not as your friend and 
brother), how very manly I thought it of you 
then to undertake the experiment. 

When the First Massachusetts Cavalry were 
at Hilton Head, they had far less illness (70 or 
80 per cent less) than the regiments on the right 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 243 

and left of them. Dr. De Wolf attributes this in 
great measure to the liberal use of quinine — 
every morning from May ist to August 30th 
every man who chose to come for it at sick- 
call got a couple of grains of quinine in a 
drink {quantum sufficit) of whiskey. I believe 
Mr. Forbes sent down at different times 60 
pounds of quinine. I mention this for Dr. 
Stone's' benefit — though probably you and 
he have already heard it. I do not fancy the 
blacks will suffer much, but I advise you 
officers to take whiskey and quinine freely if 
you are in a malarial region — it is not to be 
taken beforehand to prepare the system against 
a time when you may be in an unhealthy 
camp ; but when you go into a malarial camp, 
commence taking it at once as a specific and 
direct antidote to the malaria which you are 
taking. 

TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL HENRY S. RUSSELL 
Cp. E. of Capitol, May 23, 1863. 
We have no intimation yet of our probable 
destination — I am getting daily more and more 
indifferent about it. The officers whom I see 
from the Army of the Potomac give such dis- 
couraging accounts of its discipline and morale^ 



244 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

of the bickerings and jealousies among the gen- 
eral officers, and of the general wrongness of 
things, that I hesitate about taking steps to 
get ordered there/ 

You may rely upon it, Harry, that Lee will 
not remain idle if we do ; he will send a column 
into Maryland again when the crops are ready : 
I look for a repetition of what occurred last 
summer. Do not think I am demoralized, not 
a bit of it : but I am a little disappointed, and 
am contented not to look ahead very much, but 
to remain quietly here drilling. The companies 
here are doing well, — the horses and men learn 
faster than I expected, — I put them at bat- 
talion drill yesterday. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Sunday, 24th May, 6.30 p. m. 

I have probably quoted twenty times that 
motto of one of the Fathers, — "/« necessariiSy 
unit as ; in non-necessariisy libertas ; in omnibus , 
caritas " — " In essentials, unity ; — in non-es- 
sentials, freedom ; in all things, love." I like 
it, — it is more for opinions than for actions 
or habits, but it is good to bear in mind in 
society and in affairs, and I think that, writ- 
ten over every young fireside and read by the 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 245 

light of real love, it would smooth many dif- 
ferences. 

Sometime this summer at your open win- 
dow, you should read the " Seven Lamps of 
Architecture," — they are lamps to live by as 
well as to build by. 

About the Regiment, — did I tell you I had 
a regimental drill on Friday p. m. and another 
at 7j^ this morning, really very successful? 
I should wish you here to see one, only to the 
outsider there is little visible but a cloud of 
dust. The men are getting on so well in squad- 
ron drill that to-morrow I shall commence 
with the " individual drill " for the morning, 
squadron drill three afternoons, and regimental 
drill two afternoons and Sunday morning. The 
training of the horse, and the teaching of the 
trooper to ride, you see, which ought to come 
first, come last in our method of raising cavalry 
regiments, — we must do the best we can, how- 
ever. That expression brings me to my visit to 
Stanton. He commenced by asking after the 
regiment, and why I had not been to see him, 
— told me that he expected a great deal from 
it ; that he would do anything and everything 
I wanted to make it an " Ironsides " regiment 
(I do not know what that means, but I told 



246 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

him I would do all I could to make It a good 
regiment). He said he knew it {sic)y and added 
that he was away from Washington when that 
affair in Boston occurred, or he should have 
written me a personal letter of thanks/ I spoke 
of bringing up my companies from Gloucester 
Point, — he said it should be done, that I 
should drill them here, should have all my 
requisitions filled by preference, and when I 
said I was ready, he would send the regiment 
where it should meet the enemy, and would 
give it the post of honour (I quote his exact 
words, — it remains to be seen whether he will 
be able to act up to them, — of course I told 
him that was all I wanted). When I got up to 
go, I happened to mention the Fifty-Fourth, 
and stopped a few minutes to tell him what a 
success it had been. He seemed very much 
pleased, and said he did not know why Gov- 
ernor Andrew preferred Port Royal to New- 
berne ; but if the Governor thought that was the 
best field for them, he wanted to give them the 
best chance, and had ordered them there accord- 
ingly. I tell you of tfiis visit for your benefit, 
so far as it relates to Rob ; for my benefit, so 
far as it relates to me. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 247 

TO JOHN C. BANCROFT 

Camp near Washington, May 24, '63. 

We have been ten pleasant, sultry, summer 
days in camp here, monotonous, but enough 
occupied not to dislike the monotony, — dry 
and cool and dewy in the morning, and still 
and cool in the evenings, — with a very pretty 
view from my tent front (where we sit under a 
fly) — nothing striking, only green hills and 
fields and cattle, and off on the right the Poto- 
mac, and beyond rise the heights, where they 
have put forts, — you would not suppose it, 
however, it looks as peaceful as a Sunday should. 
It makes me infernally homesick, John, — I 
should like to be at home, even to go to church, 
— nay, I should even like to have a chaplain 
here to read the service and a few chapters I 
would select from the New Testament, — 
you '11 think it must be a peaceful scene to lull 
me into such a lamblike mood.' 

Lamblike, however, seems to be the order 
of the day, — unless, indeed. Grant's success at 
Vicksburg is to be believed. The Army of the 
Potomac is commonly reported to be going into 
summer quarters. 



248 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO MISS SHAW 

Camp, May 27, 1863, 

Did I tell you what an interest the black fel- 
lows at my barber's (under Willard's) take in me 
because I am a Massachusetts Colonel, — they 
are so pleased at the Fifty-Fourth, and at its 
being the Fifty-Fourth and not the First Massa- 
chusetts Coloured Regiment (as it is in the 
District and in most other States), — and I told 
them all I could about it, without boasting how 
near an interest I felt in its Colonel, — was n't 
that magnanimous ? Had I said the word, I be- 
lieve they would have pressed all the offices of 
their trade upon me, willy-nilly, and instead 
of my short bristles, I should have left with 
a curled wig perfumed and oiled. Governor 
Andrew's argument about officers seemed to 
satisfy them (that he wanted the best officers he 
could get for this Regiment, and they were every 
one white), and they felt (as I do more and 
more, the more I learn of regiments raised and 
raising elsewhere) that it is a great thing to have 
the experiment in one case tried fairly. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 249 

TO MISS SHAW 

Camp, May 28, 1863. 

I am expecting another horse out of town, — 
a horse which I have just bought in expecta- 
tion of selHng Nig. Nig is very pleasant, but 
has not quite as much character (obstinacy, 
perverseness) as I like, — I do not fancy horses 
who do not at the outset resist, but they must 
be intelligent enough to know when they are 
conquered, and to recognize it as an advance in 
their civilization. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Camp, May 29, 1863, 11 p. m. 

Your Capri and Sorrento have brought back 
my Campagna and my Jungfrau and my Paes- 
tum, and again the season is " la gioventu dell 
anno," and I think of breezy Veii and sunny 
Pisa and the stone-pines of the villa Pamfili- 
Doria, — of course, it is right to wish that 
sometime we may go there; of course, the 
remembrance of such places, and the hope of 
revisiting them in still pleasanter circumstances, 
makes one take " the all in the day's work " 
more bravely — it is a homesickness which is 
healthy for the soul. I should not have criti- 



250 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

cised your wishing that, but T did feel a little su- 
perstitious about the way in which you thought 
of going : I don't beheve you wish there was 
no "harness," nor yet to be out of harness, by 
reason of a break-down: collars are our proper 
" wear," I am afraid, and we ought to enjoy 
going well up to them ; but when the time for 
a free scamper comes, huzza for Italy ! 

I am sorry that my Stanton summons fright- 
ened you, and yet I am again going to startle 
you by saying that to-day I was directed by 
General Casey to report at once how much no- 
tice I required to take the field. I replied two 
hours, officially : this does not mean anything: 
I relate it because a succession of these false 
alarms makes the real start a relief when it 
comes. I have seen how it works with men 
and officers, — it is human nature. 

TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL H. S. RUSSELL 

Camp, May 30, '63. 

As soon as you are filled to a minimum^ shut 
down on all hut first-rate men. I do not want 
another " scalawag " to come into the regiment; 
they WiWfightj but they are an infernal nuisance. 

I was yesterday required to report officially 
how soon this Battalion could take the field. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 251 

I reported two hours, — but better not before 
June 20th. I do not think they mean to move 
us, but they are in constant dread of a rapid 
move towards the upper Potomac ; apparently 
one whole cavalry division of the Army of the 
Potomac moved to Bealetown (below Warren- 
ton Junction) on Thursday. 

TO MISS SHAW 
Camp Brightwood, June i, 1863. 

I am cross ; — " rumpled and harassed "don't 
begin to express my condition. I feel as if I 
were playing soldier here, and that I always 
disliked in peace, and disliked still more in 
war, — and now I 'm doing it. 

Now for narrative. Our move to-day was 
tolerably satisfactory, no end of " bag and bag- 
gage," certainly ten or twelve times as much as 
there should have been ; but we broke up a 
permanent camp, and reestablished it, and had 
plenty of daylight to spare. We are now near 
Fort Stevens, about four miles north of Wash- 
ington, on rough ground thickly studded with 
oak stumps ; not so pretty a site as our last, but 
much healthier ; we do not present so attractive 
an outside to visitors, but in reality are prob- 
ably better off. I have two companies and a half 



252 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

on picket at points fifteen miles apart, and am 
expecting some night alarms, knowing it to be 
all play and got up for drill purposes. I would 
much prefer to drill my men for the present in 
my own way, not in General Heintzelman's way, 
hence I am cross, — it is very unmilitary to be 
cross. 

I foresee that this camp is going to be a very 
cross place, — rough camps always are, — they 
are so hard to keep clean. It is astonishing how 
much easier it is to make men do their mili- 
tary duty than it is to make them appreciate 
neatness and cleanness. 

TO Miss SHAW 
Camp Brightwood, June 3, 1863. 

The change from the camp to the field (we 
are now, so far as work and life go, to be counted 
in the field, though there seems to me a good 
deal of " sham " about it) is a very critical one 
for a regiment, it is so important to start picket 
duty aright, so hard to make men understand 
that the only way to keep tolerably clean is to 
keep perfectly clean, so hard to get new officers 
to keep the proper line between their men and 
themselves. I am going to try the experiment, 
too, of taking oflF my camp guard and giving 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 253 

my " pet lambs " a chance to wander where 
they please, — punishing them, of course, if 
found outside of camp. I am not sure how it 
will work. 

TO MISS SHAW 
Camp Brightwood, June 4, 1863. 

I think it all comes back to my old maxim, 
" keep healthy and well-balanced," cut off in- 
stincts only when they are growing too long or 
too thick for other instincts : a man is meant to 
act and to undertake, to try and succeed in his 
undertakings, to take all means which he be- 
lieves necessary to success ; but he must not let 
his undertakings look too large, and make a 
slave of him ; still less must he let the means. 
He must keep free and grow integrally. 

TO HIS MOTHER 
Camp Brightwood, June 5, 1863. 

I do not see what you and Mr. Child find to 
be so hopeful about, — I see no evidence of 
yielding on their part, and no evidence of greater 
vigour on ours ; we are again on the defensive 
as we were last August, — are again idle for want 
of troops, — and Lee will again be in Mary- 
land without a doubt. I do not think this at 



254 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

all a hopeless state of things, but I see no pros- 
pect of any immediate end, which, I suppose, is 
what you are looking for.' The people are of 
a more resolute temper than at this time last 
year, but, on the other hand, party lines are 
drawing more distinctly, and I should not be 
surprised to see exhibitions of disloyalty in 
some of our Northern cities ; these will be put 
down, and in the end the Government will be the 
stronger for them, but meanwhile may not mili- 
tary operation be embarrassed and perhaps post- 
poned? Do you remember, Mother, how soon 
another Presidential canvass is coming round ? 
I seriously fear that that^ too, will be allowed 
to delay very vigorous operations, — and all 
this time the South is growing stronger. How- 
every we may get Vicksburg, and may cripple 
Lee, if he comes into Maryland. I think we 
are altogether too apt to forget the general 
aspect of affairs and regard single events as of 
entire importance : this makes any predictions 
useless, — it would operate for us in case of 
success as it has hitherto operated against us : 
but so far from feehng hopeful, I am some- 
times inclined to beheve that we are going to 
see a change : that whereas we have had few 
victories, but have been on the whole success- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 255 

ful, we are now going to gain victories and find 
them comparatively useless. 

TO MISS SHAW 
Camp Brightwood, June 7, 1863. 

Don't suppose I approve of McClellan's 
present position ; nor do I wish to see the 
Administration forced to take him back ; but 
I should feel very thankful if he were now at 
the head of affairs and were out of the hands 
of the men who are now duping him. 1 am 
afraid it may yet be necessary to call on Mc- 
Clellan, when the Government cannot do it 
with much dignity ; I hope not, however. I 
consider him more patriotic and more respect- 
able than the men who are now managing the 
Army of the Potomac. Will you pardon this? 
you know I must tell you what I think, and 
you know I am very fond of McClellan : that 
Copperhead meeting did expose him to the 
worst imputations, — but I know him to be a 
good and true patriot.' 

TO MISS SHAW 

Camp Brightwood, June 10, 1863. 
You know I believe Heaven is here, every- 
where, if we could only see God, and that, as a 



256 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

future state, it is not to be much dwelt upon, 
only enough to make one content with death as 
a change not infinitely different from sleep, — 
that prayer is not an asking, but a thanking 
mood, — that this world and all that is in it 
being created for the glory of God (and for what 
other end can such a fearful and wonderful 
" nature " be designed ?), we especially ought to 
glorify him by being thankful and seeing his 
glory everywhere. Just how we are to show our 
thankfulness is a more searching question ; I 
think not by depreciating this world to exalt 
another, perhaps by " bene vivere" perhaps by 
" loving well both man and bird and beast," — 
probably by one person in one way, by another 
in another. 

TO Miss SHAW 

Camp Brightwood, June lo, 1863. 
The way in which men are put into action 
the first time is so important, at any rate in 
cavalry, — I am very anxious my fellows should 
be started right, and not checked up just where 
they should be spurring. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 257 

TO MISS SHAW 
Camp Brightwood, June [14th?], 1863. 
I don't believe we are going to have march- 
ing orders, after all. For twenty-four hours we 
have been all ready to move at a moment's 
notice. I want marching orders very much, but 
am afraid I shall be kept here. I wish you 
could see how my Battalion will turn out to- 
morrow morning; not an extra gew-gaw, no- 
thing for ornament. Tf they want ornamental 
troops around Washington, they '11 let me go, 

— indeed, I have dropped some things which 
have generally been counted necessaries; two 
of my companies go without any blankets but 
those under their saddles. That is pretty well 
for recruits. 

If we use it rightfully, I think the Pennsyl- 
vania movement an excellent thing for the cause, 

— but that is if. What effect will it have on 
the opposition ? For the moment, of course, all 
differences will be dropped, — but afterwards 
will not the Administration be the weaker for 
it, unless the if be avoided ? You would not 
suppose I had thought much about it, from the 
loose and simple way in which I write, but I 
have : only, so much depends now on the skill 



258 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

of Hooker and Halleck {Eheu !) and on the 
nerve of Lincoln and Stanton, — depends, that 
is, on individuals, — that it is impossible to 
foresee events even for a day.' 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Camp Brightwood, June 17, '63. 

I have been expecting orders for some days 
past — but the raid into Pennsylvania seems to 
be blowing over — and they have n't come. I 
hope Hooker will seek to get a battle out of 
Lee at once — he will never have a better chance, 
with the six months* troops called for ; he will 
be able to reap the fruits of a victory if he 
gains one, and a defeat would not be very 
disastrous. 

TO Miss SHAW 

Camp Brightwood, June 17, 1863. 
I wonder whether I shall ever be able to repay 
Cousin John in any way for his many kindnesses 
and for the many pleasant days and evenings 
I have passed at Milton and Naushon. Do 
you know that after Chancellorsville he wrote 
that he had more than half a mind to come 
home at once to help raise a new army, and, if 
necessary, to take a musket himself^ Perhaps 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 259 

one of these days I may have a chance to do 
something to gratify him. I wonder whether my 
theories about self-culture, &c., would ever have 
been modified so much, whether I should ever 
have seen what a necessary failure they lead to, 
had it not been for this war : now I feel every 
day more and more that a man has no right to 
himself at all, that indeed he can do nothing 
useful unless he recognize this clearly : nothing 
has helped me to see this last truth more than 
watching Mr. Forbes, — I think he is one of 
the most unselfish workers I ever knew of: it 
is painful here to see how sadly personal motives 
interfere with most of our officers' usefulness. 
After the war, how much there will be to do, — 
and how little opportunity a fellow in the field 
has to prepare himself for the sort of doing that 
will be required : it makes me quite sad some- 
times ; but then I think of Cousin John and 
remember how much he always manages to do 
in every direction without any previous prepara- 
tion, simply by pitching in honestly and entirely, 
— and I reflect that the great secret of doing, 
after all, is in seeing what is to be done. You 
know I '11 not be rash ; but I wish I could feel 
as sure of doing my duty elsewhere as I am 
of doing it on the field of battle, — that is so 



26o LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

little part of an officer's and patriot's duty 
now. 

We are still at our old camp, and with less 
prospect of an immediate move than there was 
three days ago. Did I tell you poor Ruksh 
had been sent to a hospital in town, — to be 
turned out to pasture if he lives. I am going 
to town to pick out a Government horse to take 
his place as well as maybe. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Camp Brightwood, June i8, 1863. 
Sumner talked a great deal about the black 
troops, — about the President's views and Stan- 
ton's intention of having 200,000 in the field 
by the end of summer, which I thought rather 
wild, considering the total number of arms-bear- 
ing blacks in the South to be 360,000; Fre- 
mont wrote in the same way. Sumner had some 
excellent ideas on the probable duration of the 
war, — he thinks it ought to be a very long war 
yet. He does not find in history any record of 
such great changes as we expect to see, having 
been brought about except with long wars and 
great suffering. I think his ideas excellent be- 
cause they agree with mine. What should we 
do with a peace, until events have shaped out a 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 261 

policy which a majority of people at the North 
will recognize as the necessary one for a success- 
ful reorganization of the Southern territory and 
Southern institutions ? What two men agree 
about such a policy now? What one man has 
any clear, practical ideas on the subject at all ? 
— not Charles Sumner certainly. If black armies 
can be organized on a large scale and made to 
fight, the question of slavery and the disposi- 
tion of the slaves becomes comparatively easy 
of solution : but our whole Constitution, and 
perhaps our whole form of government, has, it 
seems to me, to be remodelled, — and that can- 
not be done until a new generation, better edu- 
cated in such things than the present, takes hold 
of it. How many years it took to form our 
present Constitution. 

TO MISS SHAW 
Camp Brightwood, a. m., June 20, 1863. 
I look for a general action soon, — and shall 
not be surprised if Lee has Washington by 
August 1st. Don't think me gloomy, — I should 
regard the loss of Washington as the greatest 
gain of the war. 

I don't wonder Rob feels badly about this 
burning and plundering, — it is too bad. In- 



262 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

stead of improving the negro character and edu- 
cating him for a civiHzed independence, we 
are re-developing all his savage instincts. I hope 
when the Fifty-Fifth goes down there, they 
may be able to make a change in negro warfare. 
Such a gentle fellow as Rob must be peculiarly 
disturbed about it.' 

TO MAJOR CASPAR CROWNINSHIELD ' 

Camp Brightwood, June 20, '63. 

We are lying here anxiously expecting orders, 
— two squadrons are just back from over the 
river collecting stragglers from the Army of the 
Potomac. The First Massachusetts Cavalry had 
a severe fight at Aldie on Wednesday afternoon. 
Captain Sargent and Lieutenant Davis (not 
Henry) reported killed, — Major Higginson 
wounded in four places, not seriously, — Lieu- 
tenant Fillibrown wounded, — Jim Higginson 
captured, — loss killed, wounded, and missing, 
160 out of 320, according to Major Higginson, 
who is at Alexandria, — but this is evidently a 
mistake.3 The loss in prisoners is great, be- 
cause Adams's squadron was dismounted and 
was supposed to be supported by the Fourth 
New York, which neglected to support at the 
proper moment and left our fellows unprotected. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 263 

TO MISS SHAW 

Camp, June 22, 1863. 

Lee is in earnest in some direction, and, within 
a month, I think we shall need all the troops 
we can raise, either to enable us to reap the full 
benefit of a victory or to lessen the disaster 
of a defeat. I am going to write to Governor 
Andrew that it is not enough for Massachu- 
setts to be ahead in volunteering, ahead in col- 
oured troops, and ahead in so many things, she 
must be ahead in conscribing, that is the ex- 
ample needed now, — conscription for old regi- 
ments, no more officers, only men : and in 
conscription, why should not Massachusetts 
set the example of no substitutes ? She has 
already so many men ahead against the next 
draft, that the conscription will not be very 
severe, and why should not all go who are 
chosen ? 

TO MISS SHAW 

Camp, June 23, 1863. 
I like your idea of convenient and comforta- 
ble duties — excellent, — no family should be 
without them, — let us order a small lot at once. 
Seriously though, it does seem strange that in a 



264 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

world where it would seem so easy to enjoy, — 
this conscience should so often come in to make 
us " move on." Carlyle says (and many others 
say) that conscience is the sign of man's fall, that 
it is the fruit of knowledge which drove man 
out of Paradise. 

TO MISS SHAW 
June 24, Near Rockville, 9 p. m. 

I wish 1 had received your letter of Monday 
three hours earlier. I would certainly have 
called on Stanton and made a strong case against 
land piracy. I went into town on business and 
had just time to call on Henry Higginson (who 
is going home to-morrow) when I learned that 
orders had been sent me to move camp to 
Poolesville, and picket the Potomac from the 
mouth of the Monocacy to Great Falls. I got 
your letter about an hour before starting. Poor 
Rob, — it is very trying indeed. I think Gov- 
ernor Andrew might easily be persuaded to re- 
monstrate against such usage of Massachusetts 
troops. I have not quite decided whether or 
no, as an officer of the army much interested 
in black troops, I might not properly write to 
Stanton on the strength of what I have seen in 
the paper about Darien. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 265 

TO HON. WILLIAM WHITING 

Camp near Poolesville, 
Headquarters 2D Mass. Cavalry, June 26,1863. 

Hon. William Whiting, Solicitor of War 

Department : 

Dear Sir, — Have you seen in the news- 
papers (our own and the rebel) the account of 
the destruction of Darien by our black troops, — 
a deserted town burned in apparent wanton- 
ness ? If this were done by order, I cannot 
think that the effect of such orders has been 
duly considered. I know how constantly you 
have been in favour of employing negroes as 
soldiers, and how much you have done to aid 
it, and I write in the hope that, if you find my 
views just, you may some time help to prevent 
the repetition of such expeditions. 

If burning and pillaging is to be the work 
of our black regiments, no first-rate officers will 
be found to accept promotion in them, — it is 
not war, it is piracy more outrageous than that 
of Semmes.' Without first-rate officers (and 
even with them) expeditions in which pillaging 
is attempted ^_y order will infallibly degenerate 
into raids in which indiscriminate pillaging will 
be the rule, and, instead of finding ourselves at 



266 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the end of the summer with an army of dis- 
ciplined blacks, we shall have a horde of sav- 
ages not fit to fight alongside of our white 
troops, if fit to fight at all. Public opinion is 
not yet decided in favour of black troops ; it is 
merely suspended, in order to see the experi- 
ment tried. I do not believe it can be made 
favourable to their employment if it sees only 
such results as these : unfavourable public opin- 
ion will still further increase the difficulty of 
getting good officers, — and so on ad Infinitum. 
Of the absolute right and wrong of the case, 
I say nothing, — and of the effect upon the 
black race, — for those are outside questions : 
but in a military point of view, I think the net 
result of Darien expeditions will be against us. 
Expeditions to help off negroes and to interfere 
with corn crops are too important a mode of 
injuring the rebels to be neglected : if made 
by well-disciplined blacks, kept always well in 
hand, they could be carried far into the interior 
and made of great service ; but troops demoral- 
ized by pillage and by the fear of retaliation, 
which would be the natural consequence of such 
pillage, will not often venture out of sight of 
gunboats. I have done what I could for the 
coloured regiments by recommending the best 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 267 

officers of my acquaintance for promotion in 
them, and I was very sorry to see that one 
Company of our Fifty-Fourth Regiment (in 
which I had taken an especial interest) was at 
Darien : I can fancy the feeHngs of the officers. 
This is written in haste, and is written loosely, 
but I wanted to call your attention to the matter. 
Always with respect and regard. 

Your obedient servant, 

C. R. Lowell, Jr. 

TO MISS SHAW 

PooLESviLLE, June 26, 1863. 

We have come to Poolesville just at the right 
moment — the whole army is passing here. I 
have seen a great many officers whom I know 
— especially at Headquarters, which are here 
to-night. 

While I have been writing this, I have re- 
ceived orders to march to-morrow to Knoxville, 
to report to Major-General Slocum for tem- 
porary duty.' 

TO Miss SHAW 
Near Brookville, June 29, 1863. 

I am afraid your Colonel is disgraced for- 
ever; — in consequence of my regiment being 



268 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

removed and of Hooker's neglecting to picket 
it with another regiment, Stuart's Cavalry came 
across yesterday and are making pretty work 
in the neighbourhood of Washington. I have 
been after them for eighteen hours, — but pre- 
sume I shall not harm them much. 

TO MISS SHAW 

PooLEsviLLE, July I, 1863. 

On Friday night at half past ten, I got orders 
to report next day to General Slocum. As I had 
to get in my patrols from a space of over thirty 
miles and had besides to reduce the baggage 
of the Regiment from eight wagons to two, I 
did n't start till 8.30 the next morning, made a 
comfortable march of twenty-five miles, reported 
as ordered, and went quietly into bivouac for 
the night, as I supposed. But about 1 1 came 
two despatches from General Heintzelman, one 
ordering me to remain at Poolesville, or to re- 
turn if I had left, the other notifying me that 
General Halleck sent the same order. I was 
considerably disturbed, and telegraphed at once 
to General Hooker and to General Heintzel- 
man and notified General Slocum. In the 
morning, 4 o'clock, I got order from General 
Hooker to report to General French, and from 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 269 

French to report immediately ; also orders from 
Heintzelman to take no orders that did not 
come through his, Heintzelman's, Headquarters. 
This was embarrassing, but I decided with 
much reluctance to obey Heintzelman, as he 
was backed by Halleck, though I was sorely 
tempted to stay with Hooker in the Army of 
the Potomac. So I moved down the Potomac 
about fifty-seven miles, and, when I reached the 
mouth of the Monocacy, met some of my wag- 
ons with the news that the rebels in strong force 
had crossed the Potomac at the very ford I was 
especially to watch ; that there had been no 
picket there at all, and no notice had gone either 
to Washington or to Hooker till nearly twelve 
hours after the crossing. Of course I was trou- 
bled, expecting that I should be made the scape- 
goat, although I was only to blame for having 
been unmilitary enough to express a wish to 
General Hooker to serve in a more active place 
and to leave the " all quiet along the Potomac" 
to some poorer regiment. I had no forage, but 
fortunately had rations in the wagons, which I 
issued, and started in pursuit.' I made excellent 
time and was far ahead on the Washington side, 
of any other troops. It was in an interval of 
pursuit, after two nights without much sleep. 



270 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

that I wrote that disagreeable pencil note. We 
did a good deal of hard marching Monday and 
Tuesday, but captured a lieutenant and four 
privates, and managed to keep Heintzelman 
pretty well informed of the movements of the 
Rebels who were in large force (Stuart with three 
brigades and Wade Hampton's legion), but I 
was still anxious lest I should be placed in arrest 
for leaving my post without orders from proper 
authority, — as not a word had I heard from 
Heintzelman, — and was very much reheved 
yesterday afternoon, when a despatch arrived 
stating that the General Commanding was grati- 
fied with my activity, and ordering me back to 
Poolesville as before. So back I have come, 
making a march of over thirty miles after 
5 o'clock last evening, and reaching here in just 
the condition to enjoy amazingly the six hours 
of balmy languor which I have indulged in, — - 
and then at length came the wagons and a 
general refreshment and reorganization of toi- 
lette. . . . 

Wars are bad, but there are many things far 
worse. I believe more in " keeping gunpow- 
der dry " than you do, but am quite convinced 
that we are likely to suffer a great deal before 
the end of this. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 271 

TO MISS SHAW 

PooLEsviLLE, July 3, A. M. 

You ask me what I know of Meade, and to 
write something comforting. I have seen a 
good deal of Meade at various times, and 
though I do not think him a great man at all, 
I believe him to be brave and judicious, — he 
is a soldier and a good man, and not an adven- 
turer like , and I am sure the morale of 

the Army, so far as the officers are concerned, will 
improve under him/ Anything immediately 
comfortable in our affairs I don't see, but com- 
fortable times are not the ones that make a 
people great, — see what too much comfort has 
reduced the Philadelphians to. Honestly, I 
dare scarcely wish that the war should end 
speedily, — but I still feel more than ever as 
if their concern were getting more and more 
brittle, and might go to pieces in a month, if we 
could gain one or two successes : we know that 
one or two disasters, so far from breaking us 
up, would only strengthen our determination 
to do our work thoroughly. If there is any 
fight in the Army of the Potomac, I think Lee's 
position not a very formidable one : I am more 
afraid now that we shall be tempted to move 



272 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

up against him and that he will slip by our left 
into Washington, — however, I know nothing 
of what is being done. 

TO MISS SHAW 
Camp on Seneca Creek, July 5, 1863. 
Yesterday our teamsters brought rumours of 
the battle of July 3d and of our immense suc- 
cess, and all day we have been waiting anxiously 
for the papers ; — at length they have come, 
with Meade's despatch and Lincoln's proclama- 
tion. I hope, before this, you had news in New 
York which will be comforting to your Mother 
and will make her feel that all is not lost, even 
for this year. As it now stands, what has been 
done makes me only the more anxious about 
what is to come, — the decisive battle is yet to 
be fought. It seems to me out of the question 
that after these heavy rains, with bad roads and 
a river behind him rapidly rising, Lee should 
dare to retire without another trial, and if the 
newspaper account is true, Meade's line is much 
longer and weaker to-day than during the fight 
of Friday. What croaking this will sound, if 
your papers have a glorious victory the morn- 
ing you get this letter. Never mind, I feel a 
little like croaking, — or rather, perhaps, I feel 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 273 

a good deal perverse and not inclined to rejoice 
too much when the papers are rejoicing, — you 
know how perverse I always am with newspapers. 
Perhaps, too, I am a little more perverse than 
usual because I am vexed at having to remain 
here when there is so much going on close 
by. I almost wish I was back a captain in the 
Sixth : however, I have done all I dare to get 
away, and I must e'en bide my time. You 
must not be disappointed ; I suppose there 
will come a time when the Regiment will have 
a chance. 

TO Miss SHAW 
Camp on Seneca Creek, July 7, 1863. 
Don't you wish that your Colonel was one 
who belonged to the Army of the Potomac ? 
He does, I'm sure. We haven't seen the 
papers since Sunday, but we have scraps of 
news by telegraph and by messengers, and, as 
far as we can learn, Lee is in full retreat and 
Meade in hot pursuit : they say even that 
the pontoons at Shepardstown (if there were 
any there) have been destroyed by a column 
from Frederick : if so, we are likely to make 
the defeat a rout. Beyond the natural rejoicing 
at so great a victory to our arms, the circum- 



274 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

stances under which this fight was won make 
it doubly acceptable : a defeat would have 
forced the Administration to take back Mc- 
Clellan, and, as a citizen, I should have re- 
garded that as very unfortunate, — a victory 
under Hooker might have been almost as bad 
as a defeat. 

But Meade is a good man and a modest man, 

— his head will not be turned, — and further- 
more, he having been so short a time in com- 
mand, I think that, while due credit is given to 
him for skilful disposition and for pluck, we 
may yet without injustice attribute something 
more to Fortune, and much more to the Army 
itself, than we should have been disposed to, 
had Meade's command been even a week older. 
How do you adapt this victory to your theory, 

— do you give up the theory, or do you ex- 
pound the victory as an indication that we have 
been sufficiently humiliated, have mended our 
ways and are now all right ? I hope people in 
general will not take the latter view, for it seems 
to me that this is only the beginning of our 
real danger, and that it is going to be more 
difficult to use victories than to bear defeats. 
Oh, I can't help often wishing that the times 
were not quite so much out of joint. Will 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 275 

and I were counting over the " satisfactory " 
people of our acquaintance, the other day, and 
very few they were : it seems to me that this 
change in public affairs has entirely changed 
my standard, and that men whom two years 
ago I should have almost accepted as satis- 
factory, now show lamentably deficient : men 
do not yet seem to have risen with the occa- 
sion, and the perpetual perception of this is 
uncomfortable. 

TO Miss SHAW 

July 9th (?). 

What glorious news about Vicksburg ! — and 
I am particularly glad to have that and Gettys- 
burg come so near the 4th of July — a year 
ago on that day Jimmy died in a farmhouse on 
the battlefield of Glendale. The little fellow 
was very happy, — he thought the war would 
soon be over, that everything was going right, 
and that everybody was as high-minded and 
courageous as himself. For Mother's sake, 
I wish you had known him, — he was a good 
son and a pure and wise lover of his Country, 
— with Father and Mother, I shall never fill 
his place, nor in the Commonwealth either, I 
fear. 



276 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, July 19, 7 p. m. 
All Thursday and Friday, we lay by the road- 
side, booted and saddled, — waiting for orders. 
Yesterday, about noon, orders came, and since 
then we have been marching hard. I have n't 
told you yet that I was serving with infantry, — 
and indeed I hope I have shaken them off for 
some time, — they are fifteen miles behind, and 
I don't mean to let them draw any nearer. I 
was ordered on Wednesday to take command 
of all the available cavalry in the district (about 
650 only) and report to General Rufus King, 
who was to move out along the line of the 
Orange and Alexandria R. R., and get it ready 
to supply Meade's Army at Warrenton or 
Manassas Gap. I was to precede his march and 
reconnoitre towards the front and towards the 
Gaps.' Yesterday word came that Lee was 
again "conscripting" along the Occoquan, and 
that the conscripts (all men under 45) were to 
be at Bentsville ; so down I started with three 
squadrons, found no conscripts, but arrested the 
Lieut.-Colonel who had ordered the draft, and 
brought him in with quite a number of other 
prisoners, — much to the delight, I believe, of 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 277 

the neighbourhood. To-morrow I don't know 
where I shall go, but to-night I wish you could 
see our bivouac ; it is on the slopes of Centre- 
ville facing West, one of the most commanding 
positions in Virginia ; now, just at dusk, it com- 
mands a lovely, indistinct view stretching quite 
out to the Blue Ridge. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, July 20, 1863. 

This has been a day of dozes, taken under 
an apple-tree on a breezy slope, — dozes inter- 
rupted by impertinent questions about horse- 
shoes and forage and rations and what not. In 
the field though, these dozy days after hard 
marching are among the pleasantest. In my 
case, they have always associated themselves with 
delightful days at Interlaken and with images 
of the Jungfrau, because after several long tramps 
I returned to Interlaken and lay off there to 
rest, choosing always some horizontal position 
with a view of the mountain at will, — I think 
the exceeding restfulness of the Jungfrau must 
impress every one, but it must be seen in the 
dozy state, when repose is the only idea of bliss, 
to be fully enjoyed, — I mean mere physical re- 
pose ; there is another higher repose about the 



278 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Jungfrau which must be grateful to all who are 
weary or heavy-laden. . . . 

I don't feel anxious, perhaps, but I feel very 
wrathful against these fellows. I do hope that 
this will lead General McClellan to shake off 
Seymour and his set, — he isn't either a fool or 
a knave, — he is simply innocent. 

TO Miss SHAW 

Centreville, July 23, 1863. 

People used to tell me, when I was at Cam- 
bridge, that those were to be the happiest years 
of my life. People were wrong. Dissatisfied as 
I have always been with myself, I have yet 
found that, as I grew older, I enjoyed more 
and more. 

I picked a morning-glory (a white one) for 
you on the battlefield of Bull Run, the other 
day, but crushed it up and threw it away, on 
second thought, — the association was not plea- 
sant ; and yet it was pleasant to see that morn- 
ing-glories could bloom on, right in the midst 
of our worries and disgraces. That reminds me 
that I haven't narrated where I went on Tues- 
day ; we started very early and went over the 
whole Bull Run battleground down to Bull Run 
Mountains and Thoroughfare, thence to War- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 279 

renton, and back to near Manassas Junction, 
by the Orange and Alexandria R. R., — a kill- 
ing march of between 52 and 54 miles on a 
scorching day and nothing learnt, except this, 
that there was nothing to learn. However, 
men and horses haV^e stood it pretty well. At 
Manassas Junction I met General Gregg and 
his division of Cavalry. Gregg told me he had 
applied for my regiment some time ago ; that he 
had a brigade of five regiments which he meant 
to give me, but the War Department did n't 
answer his application, — the Brigade was still 
waiting for me ; — provoking, is n't it ? ' How- 
ever, I long ago gave up bothering about such 
things ; I see so many good officers kept back, 
because they are too good to be spared, and so 
many poor ones put forward merely as a means 
of getting rid of them, that I never worry. 
Don't think that a piece of vanity, I don't mean 
it so. I don't call any cavalry officer good who 
can't see the truth and tell the truth. With an 
infantry officer, this is not [so] essential, but 
cavalry are the eyes and ears of the army and 
ought to see and hear and tell truly; — and yet 

it is the universal opinion that P 's own 

reputation, and P 's late promotions are 

bolstered up by systematic lying. 



28o LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, July 24, 1863. 
I must protest against your theory and Mr. 
Smalley's,' though I know the danger of oppos- 
ing a newspaper: historically, I am sure it is 
not probable the war will end yet, by victories 
or otherwise ; speculatively, I believe it is not 
desirable it should end yet ; our opinions as to 
what the war was for are not distinct enough, our 
convictions of what it has done, are not settled 
enough — /. e. I do not see that we are ripe for 
peace, I do not read that nations are wont to ripen 
so quickly, — I do not feel in myself that either 
people is prepared to stop here and give up, — 
ergo J I look for a long war still. But I cannot as- 
sent to your Jewish doctrine that it is not desira- 
ble this chosen people should have peace yet, or 
victories yet, and therefore, it will not have them : 
that seems to me to be arrogating too much 
for ourselves. I agree with George "^ that when 
a nation, or a man, has to learn a thing, it is 
clutched by the throat and held down till it does 
learn it : but I object that not all nations, and 
not all men, do have to learn things. It is only 
the favoured nations and the favoured individ- 
uals that are selected for education, — most fall 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 281 

untaught. Why may not we ? Why may not 
we fall by victory ? May it not be the South that 
is being taught ? May it not be some future na- 
tion, for whose profit our incapacity to learn is 
to be made conspicuous? No, I object entirely 
to your theory. Many nations fail, that one 
may become great ; ours will fail, unless we gird 
up our loins and do honest and humble day's 
work, without trying to do the thing by the job 
or to get a great nation made by any patent 
process. It is not safe to say that we shall not 
have victories till we are ready for them ; we 
shall have victories, and whether or no we are 
ready for them depends upon ourselves : if we 
are not ready, we shall fail, — voila tout. If you 
ask. What if we do fail ? I have nothing to say ; 
I 'm an optimist (if the word can be used with 
that meaning) as well as yourself I should n't 
cry over a nation or two, more or less, gone 
under. I find I have n't half stated my case, so 
if you answer, you must expect a great deal 
more cogent reply. Am I not an arrogant rea- 
soner ? 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, July 24, p. m. 

" Each and All " is a true poem and in 
Emerson's best strain, — but don't misunder- 



282 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

stand it; Emerson doesn't mean to bring 
in question the reality of beauty, or the sub- 
stantial truth of our youth's hopes, but he 
has seen how unripe and childish is the de- 
sire to appropriate, and how futile the attempt 
must always be. He does not lament over 
this, perhaps he rather rejoices over it, — 
everything is ours to enjoy, nothing is ours 
to encage ; open, we are as wide as Nature ; 
closed, we are too narrow to enjoy a seashell's 
beauty. 

I wonder whether you will ever like Words- 
worth as much as I do, — I wonder whether I 
liked him as much when I was " only nine- 
teen." He is clumsy, prosy, and sometimes 
silly, but he is always self-respectful, serene, and 
(what I like, even in a poet) responsible, — 
more of a man than any other modern poet, if 
not so much of a " person " as some, — less 
exclusively human and therefore more manly. 
I don't believe you '11 ever like him as much 
as I do. Indeed in my heart I hope you 
will not; he is rather a cold customer, not an 
ardent Protestant, and yet far from Catholic; 
but then he lived pretty high up and a good 
deal alone. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 283 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, July 25, 1863. 
I don't at all fancy the duty here, — serving 
against bushwhackers ; it brings me in contact 
with too many citizens, — and sometimes with 
mothers and children. The other night a fine 
looking young fellow stumbled against our 
pickets and was captured, — it proved that he 
had been out to visit his mother, — she came 
to bid him good-bye the next morning, a 
Quakerlike looking old lady, very neat and 
quiet. She did n't appeal to us at all ; she shed 
a few tears over the son, repacked his bundle 
carefully, slipped a roll of greenbacks into his 
hand, and then kissed him farewell. I was 
very much touched by her. Yesterday we took 
a little fellow, only sixteen years old, — he had 
joined one of these gangs to avoid the conscrip- 
tion, which is very sweeping; he told us all 
he knew about the company to which he be- 
longed, but he was such a babe that it seemed 
to me mean to question him. The conscription 
now takes all between eighteen and forty-five, 
and practically a good many both under and 
over : I had the satisfaction the other day of 



284 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

arresting the Lieut.-Colonel who had charge 
of the draft in this and the neighbouring coun- 
ties, and hope I have stopped it for a time. 
You see I 'm "opposed to the draft" as uncon- 
stitutional. 

TO HIS MOTHER 
Camp near Centreville, July 26, '63. 

You will write me, I know, all you learn 
about the Fifty-Fourth, I see that General 
Beauregard believes Bob Shaw was killed in 
a fight on the i8th, — I hope and trust he is 
mistaken. He will be a great loss to his 
regiment and to the service, — and you know 
what a loss he will be to his family and 
friends. He was to me one of the most attrac- 
tive men I ever knew, — he had such a single 
and loyal and kindly heart ; I don't believe he 
ever did an unkind or thoughtless act with- 
out trying to make up for it afterwards — 
Effie says he never did (I mean she has said 
so, of course I have not heard from her since 
this news) — in that, he was like Jimmy. 
It cannot be so hard for such a man to die 
— it is not so hard for his friends to lose 
him. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 285 

TO LIEUT.-COLONEL RUSSELL 

Centreville, July 26, '63. 

I cannot help having a strong hope that 
Beauregard is mistaken in supposing Rob Shaw 
killed. If he Is dead, they Ve killed one of 
the dearest fellows that ever was. Harry, I felt 
thankful that you and he were out of the Sec- 
ond at Gettysburg, — I thought of you both as 
surely safe, I had always felt of Rob too, that 
he was not going to be killed. 

It was very noble of him ever to undertake 
the Fifty-Fourth, but he had great satisfaction 
in it afterwards, both of himself and from his 
friends' satisfaction, — I believe he would rather 
have died with it than with the old Second. 
Will it not comfort his Mother a little to feel 
that he was fighting for a cause greater than any 
National one? 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, Sunday, July 26. 
Cousin John has just sent me the report 
about dear Rob. It does not seem to me pos- 
sible this should be true about Rob. Was not 
he preeminently what 

** Every man in arms should wish to be ? " * 



286 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

The manliness and patriotism and high cour- 
age of such a soldier never die with him ; they 
live in his comrades, — it should be the same 
with the gentleness and thoughtfulness which 
made him so loveable a son and brother and 
friend. As you once wrote, he never let the 
sun go down upon an unkind or thoughtless 
word." 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, July 27. 

Will and I have been talking over the good 
fellows who have gone before in this war, — 
fellows whom Rob loved so much, many of 
them : there is none who has been so widely 
and so dearly loved as he. What comfort it is 
to think of this, — if "life is but a sum of 
love," Rob had had his share, and had done 
his share. 

When I think how Rob's usefulness had 
latterly been increasing, how the beauty of his 
character had been becoming a power, widely 
felt, how his life had become something more 
than a promise, I feel as if his father's loss were 
the heaviest : sometime perhaps we can make 
him feel that he has other sons, but now re- 
member that in a man's grief for a son whose 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 287 

manhood had just opened, as Rob's had, there 
is something different from what any woman's 
grief can be. 

That is the time to die when one is happiest, 
or rather I mean that is the time when we wish 
those we love to die : Rob was very happy too 
at the head of his regiment where he died : it is 
pleasant to remember that he never regretted 
the old Second for a moment. 

TO J. M. FORBES 

Centreville, July 27, '63. 
My experience is that, for cavalry^ raw re- 
cruits sent to a regiment in large numbers are 
worse than useless; they are of no account them- 
selves and they spoil the old men, — they should 
be drilled at least four months before they join 
their regiment. Now has not Governor Andrew 
the power — I mean can he not get it — to es- 
tablish a camp of instruction and Reserve Depot 
for his two cavalry regiments at Readville ? 
There is a good drill-ground there, good water 
and good stabling for 400 horses, all that are 
ever likely to be there at one time. I should 
have the horses, arms, and equipments a per- 
manency, — with raw recruits, trained horses are 
of immense importance — 150 trained horses 



288 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

are enough, however. If some such arrange- 
ment could be made, Harry put in charge of 
both regiments and all new officers and men 
sent there to learn their A B C's, I think the 
Massachusetts regiments would be started on a 
footing that would keep them more effective 
than I see a chance of any regiments being under 
the present system. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, July 28. 
I am very sorry that I did not more than half 
bid Rob good-bye that Tuesday. It is a little 
thing, but I wish it had been otherwise. It is 
pleasant to feel sure, without knowing any par- 
ticulars, that his regiment has done well, — we 
all feel perfectly sure of it. I hope he knew it, 
too. I do wish I could be with you quietly, 
without disturbing any one : I thought I could 
write after getting letters, but I do not feel like 
it : it seems as if this time ought to belong 
wholly to Rob, — and you would like to tell 
me so much about him, — it would comfort 
you so much, for everything about him is plea- 
sant to remember, as you say. Give my love 
to your mother ; — it is a very great comfort to 
know that his life had such a perfect ending. I 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 289 

see now that the best Colonel of the best black 
regiment had to die, it was a sacrifice we owed, 
— and how could it have been paid more 
gloriously ? 

TO MISS SHAW 

Willard's Hotel, Washington, 
Sunday noon, August 2d. 

1 found, when I reported in the evening, that 
I was ordered to take command of all the Cav- 
alry in the Department (only three regiments, 
not very magnificent), headquarters to be at 
Fairfax Courthouse or Centreville.' 

Everything that comes about Rob shows his 
death to have been more and more completely 
that which every soldier and every man would 
long to die, but it is given to very few, for very 
few do their duty as Rob had. I am thankful 
they buried him "with his niggers ;" they were 
brave men and they were his men.^ 

TO MISS SHAW 

Willard's, Aug. 3, p. m. 

It is a satisfaction to think that the President's 

order is the result of your father's letter, — 

one immediate good out of Rob's death and 

out of the splendid conduct of this regiment. 



290 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Negroes at Port Hudson had been treated just 
as barbarously, but it passed unnoticed by the 
Administration, — they could not pass this over: 
I wish the President had said a rebel soldier 
shall die for every negro soldier sold into 
slavery. He ought to have said so. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Willard's, Aug. 4, 1863, p. M. 

For two days I have been seeing a good deal 

of the officers of . On the whole, I am well 

satisfied with them, though I must say I should 
like a little bit more enthusiasm. I am not much 
of an enthusiast, you know, but I have done 
what I could to discourage sneering, and to en- 
courage a ready recognition of good intention. 
I am getting to hate that narrow spirit which 
sees nothing good outside its own beaten rou- 
tine and which requires a man to be well up in 
a certain kind of " shop " talk before he is fit 
to associate with. I shall have to take it out of 
some of my First Battalion officers, I 'm afraid. 
I have not seen the letters in the California 
papers and do not think I care to. Reed is a 
very good officer, takes the greatest pride in his 
company, and, since that trouble, has done well 
by them ; his fellows have been under fire since 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 291 

those letters were written, and I feel sure that 
now the feeling is changed. I think the men in 
all the battalions are beginning to feel that their 
officers know more than the officers of any regi- 
ments they are thrown with ; and this feeling, 
of course, has a healthy effect on their morale. 
You must never allow anything you see in the 
papers to disturb you, — I have seen enough 
to convince me that all reports which go 
through Washington are systematically falsi- 
fied. Of course this does not apply to letters 
like those you have, but remember that one 
man who has been roughed and feels aggrieved 
can easily profess to express the feeling of a 
company. 

Do you suppose I object to your telling me 
not to be rash ? — I think not ; but you don't 
want me not to be rash, if I think it necessary. 

TO J. M. FORBES 

Washington, Aug. 4, p. m. 
With what you say about Negro Organization 
west of the Mississippi I entirely agree; it is a 
more aggressive movement than the Army of 
the Potomac has ever ventured upon, and in 
a larger view, it is incomparably important ; 
every black regiment is an additional guarantee 



292 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

for that settlement of these troubles which we 
regard as the only safe one, and will continue 
to be a guarantee for the permanency of that 
settlement when made. Mr. Sumner has told 
me some of the difficulties in finding the man. 
I do not know any General who has the stuff 
in him, who is not too much tied up. Would 
it be impossible to get Mr. J. W. Brooks made 
Major-General and appointed to that Depart- 
ment, — he is so peculiarly the right man, — 
that is, if there is a chance of getting him ? It 
ought to be tried. He is almost the only man 
I know who has the grasp and the originality 
for so large and so novel a work. Convince 
Stanton of his fitness, and by next December 
Brooks would have convinced everybody.' Mili- 
tary knowledge is the only thing he lacks, and 
that is the least of the things required. Briga- 
diers enough can be found to supply it ; for a 
start, I would suggest General George L. An- 
drews; he is very strong on drill and discipline 
and minor organizations. He is already in 
the Southwest, and has probably lost by nine 
months' men the best part of his command.* 
Harry knows about him. Others could be found 
in the West and, when the fighting time comes. 
Barlow and many others would jump at the 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 293 

chance. In selecting officers from the Western 
Army, Brooks would have peculiar advantages, 
— he knows so many people there who would 
assist him in his inquiries. If there is to be 
cavalry (and of course there should be) I shall 
be very glad, if no better officer can be found, 
to try my hand under any General commanding. 
I shall probably never be so much with my regi- 
ment as I have been — I am now in command 
of the Cavalry of this Department (not very 
much), and if we go to the Army of the Poto- 
mac shall undoubtedly have a Brigade. This 
in reply to your remark about my leaving the 
Second. 

Since Rob's death I have a stronger personal 
desire to help make it clear that the black 
troops are ihe Instrument which alone can end 
the rebellion ; he died to prove the fact that 
blacks will fight, and we owe it to him to show 
that that fact was worth proving, — better worth 
proving at this moment than any other. I do 
not want to see his proof drop useless for want 
of strong men and good officers to act upon 
it. I did what Httle I could to help the Fifty- 
Fourth for his sake and for its own sake 
before, but since July i8th, I think I can do 
more. 



294 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

N. B. I have no wish to be made a Brigadier 
for any specific purpose, — when I am promoted 
I wish to be Brigadier for blacks, whites and 
everybody, and wherever I go. I am sure that 
will come in good time, but I shall be very glad 
to assist in the organization of black cavalry — 
if I am wanted. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, Aug. 9, 1863. 
After I reached camp at Fairfax Station, I 
was busy all the evening with parties after 
Mosby, who again made his appearance cap- 
turing wagons, — we retook them all, but did n't 
take Mosby, who is an old rat and has a great 
many holes ; on Friday moved camp to Cen- 
treville, and am not half established yet ; my 
tents are not here. Did I write you, that in our 
skirmish with Mosby ten days ago, we lost two 
more men killed and two wounded, also two 
prisoners, but we followed him so far that we 
recaptured these and eight others whom he had 
taken from a Pennsylvania regiment. I dislike 
to have men killed in such an " inglorious war- 
fare " as Cousin John calls it, — but it's not a 
warfare of my choosing, and it 's all in the 
day's work.' 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 295 

TO J. M. FORBES 

Centreville, Aug. 12, '63. 

I am very sorry that the conscription is being 
made such a farce — somebody must be neglect- 
ing his duty shamefully. 

I agree with you that we are likely to get 
more aid from blacks than from conscripts, — 
States seem to me likely to fall short of their 
quotas, even when the second class is reached. 
Might not an impulse be given to recruiting 
contrabands in territory still recognized as rebel 
by enlisting State enterprise ? For example, let 
Massachusetts organize a skeleton Brigade (as 
in case of Colonel Wilde), and for every two 
thousand men obtained receive credit for one 
thousand on her quota and take the I300 per 
man (or any less sum the Government would 
allow) to pay expenses of getting the two men. 
I know there are grave objections to such a 
scheme, but I believe the work of recruiting 
would go on with far more success. 

I feel all that you say about " inglorious war- 
fare," but it is " all in the day's work," Mr. 
Forbes, — and has to be done. You must not 
exaggerate the danger. Mosby is more keen to 



296 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

plunder than to murder, — he always runs when 
he can.' As to insignia of rank, I never en- 
courage my officers to wear any conspicuously, 
nor do I think most of them are distinguish- 
able at lOO yards. I have my private feeling 
about the matter, — and if I am to be shot 
from behind a fence would still rather be in 
uniform than out of it. I never express this 
feeling to my officers, however, Mr. Forbes. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, Aug. 13, 1863. 
One of my beliefs is that no two persons 
ought to believe exactly alike ; that truth must 
be seen from different sides by different people, 
— or rather that different views of truth must, 
to persons of differing character and tempera- 
ment, present themselves with different degrees 
of reality and importance, and that each person 
must cling to the one which is most real, most 
internal, most near to him. 

TO J. M. FORBES 

Centreville, Sept. 13, '63. 

I learned yesterday that the President was 
very weak on the subject of protecting black 
troops and their officers ; said the Administra- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 297 

tion was not ready to insist upon their having 
equal rights with others, and that it would be 
very hard on our other prisoners to keep them 
at Richmond while we are debating about ex- 
changing one or two officers now in Charles- 
ton. This is a singularly soft-hearted view to 
take of the question — exceedingly American : 
but it seems to me your black recruiting and 
organizing will be much interrupted by its be- 
coming the avowed policy of the Administra- 
tion to adopt the Southern view of black troops 
and their officers, — much interrupted by the 
uncertainty which now exists even : that is the 
sort of fact which might weigh with an Ameri- 
can President, if he could be made to believe it. 
I suppose it would be impossible to convince 
him that, after what the Government has said 
and done through its Adjutant-General and 
through other trusted officials, there is prob- 
ably not one decent officer in the service who 
would not feel outraged at the proposed neglect 
— probably not one now in Richmond who 
would not rather stay there six months than 
be even silent parties to such a pusillanimous 
backdown. 

I have great hope that Stanton will yet stand 
stiff for the honour of the Department, — but 



298 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

there is no doubt about the President's in- 
clinations, — William Russel saw him on the 
subject and was answered as above. I cannot 
go on recommending good officers for coloured 
troops and advising them to make applications, 
if the Government is going to rate them so much 
cheaper than officers of white troops.' 

In the case of the Fifty-Fourth it seems to 
me that Massachusetts is involved, — that she 
ought to demand that her officers be treated 
all alike ; but it is discreditable that the Gov- 
ernment should make it necessary. 

TO Miss SHAW 

Centreville, Aug. 20, 1863. 
I came in about ten last evening, after four 
days' vain endeavour to get a fight out of 
White's Battalion, — four very pleasant days in 
one of the loveliest countries in the world, 
South and West of Leesburg. 

TO Miss SHAW 

Centreville, Aug. 31, 1863. 

I told you last week that Stanton had ordered 

a Court of Inquiry about some horses taken 

from us by Mosby, — his order said " horses 

taken from Thirteenth New York Cavalry." I 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 299 

wrote at once that the horses were lost by Sec- 
ond Massachusetts Cavalry, my regiment, and 
that I wished to take the blame, if there was 
any, until the court settled where it belonged. 
He made General Stoneman President of the 
Court, and that vexed me, for all such courts 
hurt a fellow's chances, and Stoneman had inti- 
mated that he was likely to give me command 
of one of his three Cavalry Depots, which would 
have been very pleasant winter-quarters. Now, 
whatever the court may find, I do not consider 
myself at all to blame, and really I shall not 
care for the finding, but I am ashamed to say 
that last week my pride was somewhat hurt and 
I felt a good deal annoyed, although Heintzel- 
man had told me he was more than satisfied, 
was gratified at what had been done. In our 
arrangements for catching Mosby, as he took 

off the horses. Captain , one of my best 

fellows, had the most important post ; — he 
went insane in the afternoon, and Mosby 's 
gang got enough the start to escape us. 

TO Miss SHAW 

Centreville, Sept. zd. 
Did I tell you that I saw my classmate, 
William J. Potter, in Washington? Potter was 



300 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

settled as clergyman in New Bedford, was 
drafted, preached an excellent sermon on the 
" draft," saying he should go if accepted, and 
that meanwhile (previous to the examination) 
he should use every means to improve his 
muscle and should feel much humiliation if 
rejected as unfit to fight for his country.' Some 
one sent the sermon to Stanton ; Stanton wrote 
asking him to come at once to Washington, 
Potter declined, saying " if accepted he should 
be under orders, but he preferred to take his 
chance with others." He was accepted, and just 
afterward received another letter from Stanton 
asking him as a particular favour to come on 
and confer with him ; so Potter was in Wash- 
ington as an enlisted man on furlough, in a full 
suit of black. Stanton had had one " conference " 
with him, and finding that he did not think 
himself very fit for a chaplaincy with a regiment, 
had told him he wanted to keep him in Wash- 
ington, that he wanted such men there, and had 
proposed to make him chaplain to a hospital, 
pro forma^ with outside duties, — Potter was 
to see him again in the evening and to break- 
fast with him the next morning. Such little 
things as that make me like Stanton, with all 
his ferocity of manner. He acts on impulses^ 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 301 

and is often wrong, but oftener right ; on large 
questions, he is almost always right, I believe. 
I think Stanton must have the credit in the 
Cabinet of having carried through the " Negro 
Army," in spite of great opposition there, and 
some doubts at the White House. It was very 
pleasant to see old Potter again, coming out all 
right. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Centreville, Sept. 10, 1863. 

I to-day had to call attention in a general 
order to the prevalence of profanity in the com- 
mand, and at the same time to add that perhaps I 
had not set them a good example in this respect. 
I don't swear very much or very deep, — but I 
do swear, more often at officers than men, and 
there is a great deal of swearing in the regi- 
ment which I wish to check : of course, I shall 
stop it in myself entirely ; I shall enforce the 
Articles of War if necessary. . . . 

I think we must make up our minds to a 
long war yet, and possibly to a war with some 
European power. For years to come, I think all 
our lives will have to be more or less soldierly, 
— i. e. simple and unsettled ; simple because 
unsettled. 



302 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Centreville, Virginia, Sept. 14, 1863. 

My dear Henry, — I was glad to see your 
fist on an envelope some weeks ago. I ought 
to have written you sooner, but it is so infer- 
nally quiet here now that to get together material 
for a letter is a labour. 

I am glad, old fellow, to hear that your 
wound is at length convalescent. It would 
have been a bore to carry a ball in it all your 
life, with a chance of its giving you a twinge 
any minute. . . . 

You ask me no end of questions about the 
army. As if we take interest in the army. We are 
an independent, fancy department, whereof I 
command the cavalry, and we take no interest in 
wars or rumours of wars. I have seen men who 
profess to be going to and from the " front," — 
but where is the " front " ? We are in the " front " 
whenever General Halleck has an officer's ap- 
plication for "leave" to endorse. Stanton is so 
fond of us, however, that he keeps us on the 
safe " front " — the " front " nearest Washing- 
ton, whereby I am debarred from the rightful 
command of a brigade of five regiments in 
Gregg's division, which Gregg offered me, and 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 303 

which he applied for me to take, my own 
regiment being one of the five. But Stanton 
is very fond of us, and keeps us where it is 
safe.' 

... I hope you will be kept at home until 
next January, for between now and then I mean 
to be married (if President Lincoln and General 
Lee do not interfere), and I shall be glad to 
have your countenance, so do not let your 
wound heal itself too rapidly. What do you 
hear from Frank '^. Give him my love, when you 
write. Tell him I gave him myself as a sample 
to be avoided, and I now give him Rob Shaw 
as a pattern to be followed. I am glad Frank 
remained in that regiment. It is historic. The 
Second Massachusetts Cavalry and some others 
are more mythic. . . . 

About coloured regiments, I feel thus, — I 
am very glad at any time to take hold of them, if 
I can do more than any other available man in 
any place. I will not offer myself or apply for a 
place looking to immediate or probable promo- 
tion. If one goes into the black business he 
must go to stay. It will not end by the war. 
It will open a career, or at any rate give ex- 
perience which will, inevitably almost, consign a 
man to ten or twenty years' hard labour in Gov- 



304 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ernment employ, it seems to me. Since Shaw's 
death I have had a personal feeling in the matter 
to see black troops made a success ; a success 
which would justify the use (or sacrifice) made 
of them at Wagner. 

Do you know the President is almost ready 
to exchange your brother Jim, and leave Cabot 
(it might have been Frank just as well) in prison 
at Charleston, after all the promises that have 
been made by the officers of the Administra- 
tion? This is disgraceful beyond endurance 
almost.' 

TO MISS SHAW 
Willard's [Washington], Sept. 15, 1863. 

I have had a very pleasant hour with Governor 
Andrew. He talked about Rob and how very 
fond he had become of him. He said that, at the 
Williamstown Commencement Dinner, he men- 
tioned him in his speech, and there was not a 
dry eye in the room. He said too that he meant 
to live long enough to help finish a monument 
at Charleston which should be connected in the 
Nation's heart with Colonel Shaw, as Bunker 
Hill is with Warren. His tender, affectionate 
way of saying " Colonel Shaw " touched me 
very much, — it made me feel like crying too. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 305 

I wish we had a large-hearted man like Andrew 
for President. Andrew had been to see Mr. 
Lincoln to-day about the coloured regiment 
prisoners, and thinks the right thing will yet 
be done. I talked with Stanton about them, 
and find he feels exactly as we do ; that we 
must stop all exchanging till all prisoners are 
placed on the same footing. 

TO HIS AUNT ELLEN 

Centreville, Sept. 16, '63. 

I had occasion to see Stanton to-day, — and 
introduced [the subject of] coloured prisoners, 
of course. He said he had long ago ordered 
General Gilmore to demand from the rebel 
General a statement of what Fifty-Fourth pris- 
oners he had, and what their treatment was ; 
— he had had no reply from Gilmore, and was 
proposing to send an officer to Charleston on 
that special mission, — if no satisfactory reply 
could be got from Beauregard, we should as- 
sume the worst, and should retaliate. The Gov- 
ernment had no information of what men or 
officers they had, or even of what they were 
believed to have. 

We cannot insist upon their exchanging this 
or that officer in this or that regiment, but we 



3o6 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

can rightly demand an acknowledgment of the 
equal claims of all, and can compel this uniform 
treatment. He was in favour of refusing ex- 
changes until we had secured these two points, 
— he did not pretend to say, however, that this 
would be the policy of the Administration, 
though he himself had the matter very much 
at heart. 

Governor Andrew saw Mr. Lincoln yesterday 
and urged the same points again to him, — he 
had an impression that it would be " all right " 
yet. Stanton recognizes entirely the injustice 
and the impolicy of yielding a hair's-breadth in 
the matter. 

TO J. M. FORBES 

Centreville, Sept. 17, '63. 
Stanton is entirely right on the black prisoner 
question, and I think will yet keep the Presi- 
dent straight : Governor Andrew had a conver- 
sation on the subject with the President and 
does not think him so shaky as William Russel 
found him. I believe Mr. Lincoln has a way 
of stating to himself and to others, as strongly 
as may be, the afrguments against the course he 
really has in his mind to adopt — many women 
are made so. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 307 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Centreville, Va., Sept. 28, 1863. 

My dear Henry, — I have heard from E. all 

sorts of pleasant tidings of you and . I did 

not, of course, expect to hear from you again, 
though I should like to hear from some one just 
how you are in body, and just when you expect 

to be in saddle again. I saw and , a 

few days ago, and heard rather bad accounts of 
you — something about inflammation. . . . 

Did I tell you that I hoped to get a leave 
of absence sometime about November ist, and 
meant therein to come home, — and that 's not 
all, but meant also to be married? I don't believe 
I did tell you, for the plan, though inchoate, 
was not in shape to bear telling. Now I think 
it will ; of course, I do not expect to get my 
leave, but I think I shall ask for it; Halleck is 
such a splendid old veteran that I expect he 
will refuse. I shall ask for twenty days, and 
shall try to be married in the first five (one of 
the first five, Henry ; it only takes one day) 
and I want you to be married on one of the 
other five. E. and I would so much like to be 
at your wedding, old fellow. . . . Of course, in 
these times, weddings are what they should be, 



3o8 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

quiet, simple, and sacred. . . . My plan for the 
winter is headquarters at Fairfax Court House, 
with E. for Commander-in-Chief. She is not 
such a veteran as Halleck, but I think she can 
manage men better, in the field or anywhere 
else. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Centreville, Oct. I, '63. 

My dear Boy, — I was very glad to receive 
your note ; not the less that it was in a new hand- 
writing, — in a better handwriting, I think. . . . 

You must not be impatient to return, and, 
above all, must not, when you begin to feel 
fairly well, be bullied by any Boston hypersen- 
sitiveness into returning too soon because you 
are having too good a time at home. If you are 
away six months, you will be back before the 
war is over, my sanguine prophet, — yes, three 
years before. Your regiment is now guarding a 
portion of the railroad near Catlett's Station, — 
about two hundred and twenty men for duty 
and all the officers they require. If " all New 
England " gets too many for you, can you not 
be detailed as Superintendent of Regimental 
Recruiting Service? ... I consider that a very 
important duty. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 309 

" How could I be married without * daily- 
bread ' ? " A pertinent question, Henry. There 
are still ravens, but it does not appear that Elijah 
ever taxed the powers of his by marrying. A 
year ago, I should have told you condescend- 
ingly that each party having had its own ravens 
in the single state, we might reckon confidently 
upon their pulling together in the married state : 
now^ I sometimes think that confidence too hasty. 
. . . Though I mean to make this change my 
habits, I do not mean to allow it to change my 
old trustfulness. I have nothing, as you know ; 
I am going to marry upon nothing; I am going 
to make my wife as happy upon nothing as if 
I could give her a fortune — in that I still have 
faith ; in that one respect this war is perhaps a 
personal Godsend. " Daily bread " sinks into 
insignificance by the side of the other more im- 
portant things which the war has made uncer- 
tain, and I know now that it would be unwise 
to allow a possible want of " daily bread " in the 
future to prevent the certainty of even a month's 
happiness in the present. In peace times this 
would not be so clear. ... I remember dining 

with last winter, and feeling that I would 

rather commence in a garret than in a house too 
big and too thoroughly furnished. . . . Fresh air. 



310 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

light and heat are indispensable ; these the Gov- 
ernment furnishes liberally. One dollar per diem 
for food and one for clothing ought to provide 
for each party's wants, and I am glad that our 
pay allows for this twice over. "After the war," 
if that time ever comes, I do not think that there 
will be more men than there are places for them 
to fill. 

TO Miss SHAW 

Fairfax, Oct. 8, 1863. 
I believe with Lord Bacon, who was a very 
wise old fellow, that whatever be your income, 
it is only just to yourself, your wife, and your 
fellow-men, to lay aside a large fraction for wet 
days, and a large fraction for charity: I have 
never acted up to my theory, but I mean to be- 
gin now, — I don't mean to worry about money, 
and I don't mean to have you worry ; ergo, you 
must expect to see me keep an account-book, 
and occasionally pull it out and warn you how 
much water we are drawing, and how much 
there is under our keel. Mother ends by say- 
ing that she has put a thousand dollars in the 
bank to be something to fall back upon during 
the first year, but I think we ought to get along 
without needing that, — my pay is I2400 a year. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 311 

not including horses, one servant, and fuel and 
quarters " commuted " when on duty in a city, 
— of course these latter are supplied in the field. 
I know what officers of my regiment have done 
easily on a captain's pay, and I know what I 
used to do when I kept house in Burlington, — 
and I know we can live suitably and worthily 
on that, and be very happy and see friends as we 
want to see them, only we must start right. 

Did I tell you, by the way, that Stoneman's 
Court of Inquiry recommended me to be more 
careful for the future, mentioning two points 
where I seemed careless ? I was not careless, as 
Will or any of my officers will tell you, — I was 
not at all to blame. I was particularly careful 
on one of the points where I am blamed, — but 
I am perfectly willing to shoulder the blame, — 
prefer to, in fact, — for I think a commanding 
officer is to blame for everything that goes wrong 
under him. 

TO MISS SHAW 

Fairfax, Oct. 9, 1863. 

I saw that paragraph in the " Herald," — it is 

not true. I had orders from Heintzelman to 

clear out the whole country inside of Manassas 

Junction more than a month ago. I began it. 



312 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and the parties arrested were sent back from 
Washington almost as fast as I sent them there. 
I also had orders to burn the houses of all 
persons actively assisting Mosby or White. I 
have burnt two mills and one dwelling-house, 
the latter belonging to a man who can be proved 
to have shot a soldier in cold blood the day after 
the battle of Bull Run, and to have afterwards 
shot a negro who informed against him. This 
man was taken at his house at midnight in rebel 
uniform, with two other soldiers ; he claimed 
to belong to a Virginia Cavalry regiment and to 
be at the time absent on furlough, and denied 
being one of Mosby 's men ; he had no furlough 
to show, however, and we knew that he had 
been plundering sutlers and citizens for more 
than a month. I therefore ordered his house 
to be burned ; it was done in the forenoon and 
our men assisted in getting out his furniture. 
I wrote Mosby saying that it was not my in- 
tention to burn the houses of any men for 
simply belonging to his command ; that houses 
would be burnt which were used as rendezvous ; 
that that particular house was burnt because it 
harboured a man who was apparently a deserter 
and was known to be a horse-thief and high- 
wayman, a man obnoxious equally to both of 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 313 

us (officers acting under orders) and to all citizens. 
I shall probably have to burn other houses, but 
it will be done with all possible consideration. 
You must not feel badly, not more badly than 
is inevitable, — I hope you will always write 
about such things : it will make me more con- 
siderate, and in such cases one cannot be too 
considerate. 

TO Miss SHAW 

Oct. 13, 1863. 
I am sorry -to disturb George, — but Mosby 
is an honourable foe, and should be treated as 
such. S. and I had various tilts on that subject 
two years ago. I have not changed my opinion 
in spite of the falsehoods of Beauregard and 
the perfidy of Davis or his War Department. 
We have acknowledged them as belligerents, 
and we must treat them accordingly ; we gain 
more by it in our State questions than we lose 
by it in military respects.' 

TO MISS SHAW 

Vienna, October, 1863. 

It has been a lovely day, — I hope we shall 
have such days after you come here, — the 
woods in all their softest and warmest colours. 



314 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and seen in the light of a balmy Italian spring 
sky. I am afraid it has " demoralized " me or 
discouraged me, and made me feel as if the end 
of the war were a great way off yet : we don't 
deserve to have peace yet : what I have seen 
of the Army of the Potomac really pains me : 
I do not mean that the men are not in good 
spirits and ready to fight, but the tone of the 
officers (those that I see) does n't seem to im- 
prove in earnestness at all. I almost think we 
shall need a Cromwell to save us. I cannot 
feel about Lincoln at all as you do, — and as 
to Halleck — ... 

I do not see that this war has done us as a 
nation any good, except on the slave question, — 
in one sense that is enough ; but how is it that 
it has not taught us a great many other things 
which we hoped it would ? ' 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

Vienna, Va., Nov. 19, 1863. 

... I wish that you and could make 

as pleasant arrangements for winter-quarters as 
E. and I have made. We have all the luxu- 
ries and some of the necessaries. Housekeeping 
is under difficulties, but is a success. It 's a 
great thmgy pendant Fhivery to have a Brigade in 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 315 

a fancy Department, and to have your wife out 
to command it. In spite of Mosby, we have 
a good canter every day, have enough books, 
and only have not enough time to read them.' 
This is not a letter. Merely hearing how 
soon you were to be married, I wish to express 
my satisfaction and to give my formal consent. 
I would advise you not to be impatient about 
returning to your regiment. Haste is poor 
speed in such matters, but of course I know 
nothing of your condition (as we say of horses) 
or of your intentions. If you go to the Army 
of the Potomac on horseback, you must man- 
age to pass through Vienna. Remember this, 
boy. How old are you? To see a fellow like 
you, whom I 've seen grow up from a hinfant, 
go and be married, makes me feel very old. . . . 
When you leave the service, you must permit 
to arrange your life so that we can occa- 
sionally see one another. I dare say she and 
E. could manage it. I have great confidence 
in them. Good-bye. 

TO J. M. FORBES 

GiESBORo' Point, Feb. 24, '64. 
I left Vienna, not from choice, but because 
I had to. I am sent over here to straighten out 



3i6 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

the Cavalry Depot, — the Depot which supplies 
all the Eastern Departments. There has been 
no head here, and there was a sad want of sys- 
tem. They say at the War Department, at the 
Cavalry Bureau, and at General Augur's Head- 
quarters, that I should only be here two or three 
months, — in that case I shall not object. There 
is a great deal of work to be done, and I am 
getting interested in it, — but shall leave when 
I get the machine fairly running. The com- 
mand of 16,000 to 25,000 indifferent (or worse) 
horses is not much for glory.' 

About going into active service I cannot tell : 
I wrote to General Gregg and got answer that 
he would apply to Pleasanton for the Regiment 
and could probably get it, — I have heard no- 
thing more.^ 

TO J. M. FORBES 

GiESBORo', March 5, '64. 

I have not had time to do much myself about 
the Spencers, — but meeting Lieutenant Pink- 
ham, I sent him to the Ordnance office to make 
the necessary inquiries, — they say they have 
none to spare us, but that any arrangement we 
can make with the State of Massachusetts will 
be favourably endorsed at the Bureau.^ I shall 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 317 

be very glad if the Governor can see his way 
to let us have a supply ; enough for the whole 
Regiment if possible — if not, at least enough 
for two squadrons. Perhaps it might be a good 
thing in other ways to have Massachusetts fur- 
nish the California Battalion with these arms; 
it would convince the men that there were some 
advantages in belonging to a Massachusetts 
regiment — however revolting it might be to 
their pride. 



LETTERS 
VI 

THE GREATER SERVICE 

Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, and in thy 
majesty ride prosperously because of truth and righteousness, and 
thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. 

Psalm xlv, 3, 4. 



Who, if he rise to station of command. 

Rises by open means, and there will stand 

On honourable terms, or else retire. 

And in himself possess his own desire; 

Who comprehends his trust, and to the same 

Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim; 

And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait 

For wealth or honours, or for worldly state; 

Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall 

Like showers of manna, if they come at all. 

Whose powers shed round him in the common strife. 

Or mild concerns of ordinary life, 

A constant influence, a peculiar grace; 

But who, if he be called upon to face 

Some awful moment, to which Heaven has joined 

Great issues, good or bad for human kind. 

Is happy as a lover, and attired 

With sudden brightness, like a man inspired. 

And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law 

In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw. 

The Happy Warrior. 



VI 

THE GREATER SERVICE 

TO HIS WIFE 

Tenallytown, July ii, 1864. 

There is no end of confusion out here, and 
very little known of the enemy. I took over 
our I St squadron, with a miscellaneous assort- 
ment from the Dismounted Camp, to within 
two miles of Rockville this morning, met a 
superior force of Rebs (nothing very tierce, 
however) and fell gradually back towards 
Tenallytown, they following with a gun and 
a gradually diminishing column. They are re- 
ported approaching similarly on the yth St. 
road, — it looks at present more like a move 
to mask heavier movements than like a serious 
effort against this part of the fortifications. I 
gather from what I hear that you are cut off 
from Baltimore and cannot do otherwise than 
stay. 

We had only two men wounded this morn- 
ing, neither seriously, — several horses, among 



322 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

others Ruksh, very slightly, just across the back 
behind the saddle, injuring an overcoat for me 
as once before on the Peninsula. As Ruksh had 
a sore back before, it did not pay him to get 
this scratch. 

Am I not " good " to write such narratives 
to you ? — it is attributable to the flies and the 
heat and the company I am in.* 

TO HIS WIFE 

Halltown, Aug. 9, 1864. 

I *ve been ever so busy lately ; I 've hardly 
had time to sleep or think, except Sunday, when 
I slept all day, having been up all the night 
before. I am to have the 3d Brigade, — 1st 
Division in the New Cavalry Corps, — nothing 
very stunning, I fear, but good enough for a 
beginner. General Merritt has the Division. 
Everything is chaos here, but under Sheridan 
is rapidly assuming shape. It was a lucky in- 
spiration of Grant's or Lincoln's to make a 
Middle MiHtary Division and put him in com- 
mand of it ; it redeems Lincoln's character and 
secures him my vote, if I have one. 

It is exhilarating to see so many cavalry about 
and to see things going right again. ^ 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 323 

TO HIS WIFE 

Strasburg, Aug. 12, 1864. 
Nothing very interesting here, — the rebels 
have been falHng back slowly for two or three 
days, — forming line of battle once or twice a 
day, letting their trains pass, — moving on just 
before our infantry could come up. Yesterday 
their line was on Cedar Creek, a strong posi- 
tion, very difficult to flank, — to-day we look 
for them at Fisher's Hill behind Strasburg, — 
but it is not by any means certain that either 
general intends to fight. If there is a fight, it 
will not be our affair, but will be left to the 
infantry. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Sunday Morning, 7 a. m. 

Oh, you must n't let yourself or your friends 
talk about my leaving the army, — we are bound, 
if any one is, to do our all to see the war well 
finished, for without the war, I dare say we 
might n't have come together — and then I 'm 
sure I should n't have cared so about leaving 
the army. 



324 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO HIS WIFE 

Near Berryville, Aug. 19, 7 a. m. 

We are falling back : we commenced the day 
after the day I wrote you. I had the right rear, 
with orders from Grant to drive in every horse, 
mule, ox, or cow, and burn all grain and forage, 
— a miserable duty which continued till Win- 
chester.' Just in front of Winchester (on the 
old ground where Shields and Banks and Mil- 
roy and Hunter had already been outwitted) 
Torbert made a stand with Wilson's Division 
and my Brigade of cavalry and a small Brigade 
of infantry. He stood till nightfall, just long 
enough to lose nearly the whole of the Infantry 
Brigade and some of Wilson's Cavalry, — my 
men were only engaged in the very beginning, 
and were withdrawn as soon as Torbert dis- 
covered he had infantry in front of him. That 
was Wednesday, — the next day we held the 
Berryville Pike at the Opequan till Rhodes's 
Infantry drove us back, and now for two days 
we have been picketing about halfway between 
there and Berryville, expecting every minute to 
be driven back, — our infantry having moved 
back some twelve miles. Longstreet's Corps is 
in the valley, and Lee's Cavalry, and Sheridan 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 325 

feels too weak to fight them far from his base. 
If the rain does not raise the Potomac, I think 
they will be in Pennsylvania again within a 
fortnight. It has been raining for two days at 
intervals and still continues. I am writing in 
a fortunate snatch by the light of the Doctor's 
lantern, — as I have no blankets and we allow 
ourselves no great fire, the nights are a little 
"tedious," — however I'm entirely well, and at 
this moment, not even homesick, — am too 
anxious about the Rebs, I suppose, to leave 
room even for that.' 

TO HIS WIFE 
Near Halltown, Aug. 24, 5 a. m. 
We have had the rear-guard nearly every mile 
of the way down, — have had no real heavy 
fighting, but a great deal of firing ; have got off 
very well, losing in the whole brigade not over 
seventy-five. I have had my usual bad luck 
with horses — Ruksh was wounded on Friday 
in the nigh fore leg, pastern joint; the ball 
went in, and came out apparently about one 
third of the way round, but I have got him 
along to this point and may save him. Mon- 
day morning I was on Will's " Dick," and his 
off hind leg was broken and we left him, and 



326 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

yesterday I tried Billy, and a bullet went through 
his neck, — it will not hurt him at all, however, 
— will add to his value in Mr. Forbes's eyes at 
least a thousand dollars.' Berold is so foolish 
about bullets and shell now (feels so splendidly 
well in fact) that I really can't ride him under 
fire, so it 's probable you '11 see him again. I 'm 
training the gray and shall try to use him habit- 
ually, — as I mustn't risk Billy again. Please 
don 't speak of my bad luck with horses, it 
seems foolish, — of course I shall have to write 
Mr. Forbes. I think I shall write Charley Per- 
kins to sell that farm, — I don't see how we 
shall keep ourselves in horses otherwise.* 

TO J. M. FORBES 

Halltown, Aug. 25, '64. 
Foster seems to be the man now through 
whom to work exchanges : if Will's can be ob- 
tained, I would certainly manage it, for such 
special exchanges do not, as I understand it, 
affect the general question or the position which 
the Government takes upon it. If by letting 
"Will stay, you could at all strengthen their 
back-bone against exchanges in toto — I would 
say let him stay there, however hard. I admit 
that myself ^'il taken, I would rather remain there 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 327 

than be got out till the rest were, — I dare say 
Will has the same feeling, — but you're not 
bound to consider that. About horses I have a 
sad story to tell, — the very night after I wrote 
you how finely Atlanta was looking, she was 
stolen from the line, — I have had men search- 
ing for her ever since, and have our Veterinary 
SuVgeon still out, — but without much hope of 
success.' On Monday I rode Dick, though he 
is very unsteady under fire. His off hind leg 
was broken and he was abandoned. On Tues- 
day I tried Billy, who had proved excellent under 
fire, — and he got a bullet through the neck, 
very high up however, and not at all serious, — 
he is just as hearty as ever and will not lose an 
hour of duty, — his back is all right. I should 
not have ridden these horses, but Berold has 
become entirely uncontrollable among bullets; 
and poor Ruksh last Friday (the first time I 
rode him) got another bullet in his nigh fore 
leg, near the pastern, which will lay him up for 
a month and I fear ruin him. You see I am 
unlucky on horses — that is not all, — the gray 
is badly corked and can scarcely hobble. How- 
ever, I find no officers who have any scruples 
about riding Government horses when they can 
get them, and I shall keep myself somehow 



328 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

mounted at U. S. expense. Don't mention my 
ill luck; I have only written about it to Effie, — 
and after all, it is the best form in which ill luck 
could come. Sheridan has not done anything 
very brilliant in the Valley yet, — but I have 
great confidence in him. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Halltown, Aug. 25, 1864. 

It's nice to have you be at home picking 
yourself up again ; don't you like to have lives 
continuous and not "jumpy " ? I do. I should n't 
want a monotonous life, but to get the full 
benefit from a varied life, I think you must have 
a " base " to return to occasionally and quietly 
ruminate. You see I 'm arranging so that just 
as long as the war lasts, you '11 have to be lead- 
ing just the best theoretic life. After the war is 
over (ten years from now) we shall be so old 
that some other life will be theoretically better, 
— : or perhaps we shall be too old to care much 
for theories. 

I wish you could look in and see what a 
pretty little grove we are in, — you 'd be quite 
jealous of me, unless Hastings is very pleasant, 
— and you 'd see the red blankets, and of course 
me upon them, and I should get up and we 'd 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 329 

go and see Berold together. The rascal, I think 
he is quite proud of his discovery about bullets, 
and exaggerates his feelings on the subject ac- 
cordingly. However, he 's a good horse, the best 
horse I have. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Aug. 28, 2 p. M., Charlestown. 
Every morning I am waked at 3.30, and since 
we started on the campaign I can remember but 
two nights in which I have slept over two hours 
consecutively. At this moment I have half my 
men out on reconnoissances towards the front, 
and am constantly receiving and expecting re- 
ports. Every day but one for the last ten, we 
have had more or less fighting, and as my com- 
mand is a very mixed one, — the largest regiment 
(25th N. Y.) having only joined four days ago, 
and having had its horses only seven days be- 
fore that, — only time to march from Washing- 
ton, — I have my hands full. You will be sorry 
to hear that Captain Eigenbrodt is killed, and 
Lieutenant Meader ; Captain Phillips wounded 
in the arm by a guerrilla ; several of our best 
sergeants and men are gone too. The Second 
has been more fortunate, too, than either of my 
other regiments. Day before yesterday, we made 



330 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

a nice dash on the Rebs, killing two, wounding 
four or five, and capturing 70, including a lieut.- 
colonel, three captains, and three lieutenants, 
— all of a South Carolina Infantry Regiment. 
Yesterday, if I had had a little more pluck, I 
think I might have sent you a battle-flag, but 
Caspar thinks it more likely / should have gone 
to Richmond.' To-day we are trying to find 
out what the enemy is after, whether really re- 
treating, or only feigning. Berold is right in 
front of me eating oats. 

Two orderlies since I began to write this 
page, and General Sheridan is the most restless 
mortal, — he would like a report every five 
minutes, if he could have one. 

It is one thing to be one's own master, as at 
Vienna, and another to be a small part of a large 
body, — as I am now. I like it, but I should be 
sorry tc have it continue more than four weeks 
longer. I sincerely hope that Lee will find he 
needs Early near Richmond ! That's " demorali- 
zation," only disguised in a patriotic dress.^ 

TO HIS WIFE 
Summit Point, Aug. 30, 8 a. m. 

If we ever do have any money to help the 
Government with, I would rather put it in the 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 331 

5-20 Bonds than in those 7-30 fellows, — I 
don't believe in the policy or wisdom of the 
latter, and prefer not to encourage them by my 
support ! Before I got your letter, 1 had already 
written Charley Perkins to sell my land at 
I200 (?), though that is too cheap for such a 
pretty place. By the way, I am literally a " pen- 
niless colonel," — I have not a single cent left, 
except a silver dime-piece which an officer gave 
me a day or two ago for luck. The Rebs will 
be disgusted if they ever have occasion to " go 
through me." I do wish George,' or somebody, 
would write a candid article showing that the 
great weakness of this Administration has 
been from first to last in every department a 
want oi confidence in the people, in their earnest- 
ness, their steadfastness, their superiority to low 
motives and to dodges, their clear-sightedness, 
&c. I think the whole Cabinet have been more 
or less tricky, — or rather have had faith in the 
necessity of trickiness, — and the people are 
certainly tired of this. 

I was interrupted here and sent out to drive 
in the enemy 's picket in front of us. We have 
brought back five prisoners, killed two lieu- 
tenants and three privates, — Captain Rumery 
and two privates very slightly wounded, and 



332 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

two men of Second Maryland killed. Success- 
ful, but not pleasant, — the only object being 
to get prisoners, and from them to get infor- 
mation. We now have orders to move camp 
at once. Good-bye, I don't think it's plea- 
sant telling you about our work, and I think I 
shan't tell any more, — it does n't give you 
any better idea of my whereabouts or my what- 
abouts. 

TO HIS WIFE 
Near Smithfield, Sept. i, 1864, Evening. 

If you could only just step in here, — such a 
pretty place for Headquarters, — two wall-tents 
facing West, in a perfectly green and smooth 
front-yard with locust and maple trees for shade. 
On the porch of the house you would have en- 
joyed seeing five Httle darkies, the oldest not 
over six, dancing while the band was playing 
an hour ago. And to complete it, Berold is 
right in front looking over the fence very in- 
quisitively at a two-year-old colt that has just 
been brought in, stolen, — that 's the way it was 
an hour ago, 1 mean, — it is dark now, but we 
have a blazing fire of rails which lights up 
everything gloriously. 

Poor McClellan, I am sorry his name is to 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 333 

be dragged through the mud so, — what a con- 
temptible platform ! Honestly I believe that if 
by chance McClellan is elected, the North will 
split before his four years are passed, and we 
shall be left in the condition of the South Amer- 
ican republics, or worse. 

If success to our arms will further Lincoln's 
chances, I feel as if each one of us, both in the 
army and at home, had a tenfold motive for 
exertion now. If McClellan is chosen, I shall 
despair of the Republic ; either half a dozen 
little republics, or one despotism j must follow, it 
seems to me. What a state of affairs Gov- 
ernor Brough's proclamation about the draft 
indicates ! I should not like to be an editor 
now, or at any other time. Don't be alarmed 
about that, in spite of my fondness for writ- 
ing ! 

By the way, I do wish that Sherman's letter 
could be made, in this campaign, the platform, 
so far as the contraband question goes. I feel as 
if the bill for recruiting in the Southern States, 
and the continual efforts to prove that black 
troops are altogether as good as white, were 
going to damage us, and rightly too, for / 
do not consider either of the above positions 
tenable, when looked at largely. 



334 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO HIS WIFE 
Sunday, Sept. 4, Summit Point, 6 a. m. 
We are on the right flank, of the Army 
again — indeed, are the only cavalry there — 
and are constantly on the go. By the way, 
Billy got another bullet yesterday ; it struck the 
ring of his halter and shivered it, — has bruised 
and cut him a little, but we cannot decide where 
the bullet is. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Summit Point, Sept. 4, 1864. 
You must not feel despondent about public 
aflTairs. Lincoln is going to be reelected. Every 
officer ought to show double zeal, and every 
citizen double interest in recruiting, if any mili- 
tary success is to have an eff^ect on the result. 
I think chat four years under McClellan would 
destroy what is left of the Republic. I am very, 
very sorry that his name is to be used by men 
like Wood, Vallandigham, and Cox. 

TO HIS WIFE 

6 a. m., September 5, 1864. 
I stopped here because supper was ready, and 
then it was dark and the band played. Now 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 335 

I 'm going to say Good morning, — it is n't real 
Good morning nor even a fresh one, it 's a limp 
Good morning — five interruptions last night be- 
fore one o'clock, and then a line from the Gen- 
eral that he anticipated an offensive movement 
this A. M. from the enemy, and that we must be 
saddled, &c., at 3 a. m., so I had to order myself 
to be called at half past two, and after all had to 
wake the sentry, instead of his waking me. The 
consciousness that this would be the case cost 
me several wakes in between, — and that 's the 
reason I 'm not fresh, though 1 have been duly 
shaving and washing and brushing. Nothing 
" offensive " yet, — but I expect a fight during 
the day, as the two armies are face to face in 
sight of each other. It will be an affair of the 
infantry, however ; the cavalry ended their work 
yesterday, when they got the Rebs into position 
and reported them there. 

And now good-bye. 1 'm going to move my 
camp about half a mile, so as to make closer 
connection towards the left, — and it's raining, 
so I shan't be able to write there probably. 
This is writ in a barn which is my Head- 
quarters, — Headquarters Third Brigade, First 
Cavalry Division, — that 's the official name of 
the barn. 



336 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO HIS WIFE 
Summit Pt., 7 p. m., Sept. 5, 1864. 
This evening in a very heavy rain our wag- 
ons came up, and I am now snugly ensconced 
in a tent on top of my red blankets. How are 
" yous all" feeling about public affairs? I am 
growing more hopeful daily, — Atlanta falls 
very opportunely. Early has not got back into 
Maryland, and I hope Sheridan will not let 
him go there. By the way, I like Sheridan im- 
mensely. Whether he succeeds or fails, he is 
the first General I have seen who puts as much 
heart and time and thought into his work as if 
he were doing it for his own exclusive profit. 
He works like a mill-owner or an iron-master, 
not like a soldier, — never sleeps, never worries, 
is never cross, but is n't afraid to come down on 
a man who deserves it. Mosby has been " too 
many " for him again however, and has taken 
some more ambulances, — the fault of subordi- 
nates who will send trains without proper escort. 
Good-night ; this is a mere scrawl, to tell you 
that the enemy did not attack but seems to 
have fallen back once more to Winchester. 
Good-night ; it 's only eight o'clock, but you 
know how unfresh I was this a. m. and I have 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 337 

had no nap all day, — but don't suppose from 
that that I 'm sick ! 

TO HIS WIFE 
Near Summit, 9 p. m., Sept. 8, 1864. 

To-day has quite changed the face of things, 
^ — the Third Brigade (my brigade) has been 
broken up : the Second Massachusetts is trans- 
ferred to the "Reserve Brigade," and I take 
command thereof, Colonel Gibbs being trans- 
ferred to command of Second Brigade : the 
change looks like making the Second Massachu- 
setts a permanent member of the Army of the 
Potomac, or that portion of it which is here.' 

I am now where, if there is anything to be 
done for Mr. Linkum ^ in the way of fighting, 
I may have a chance to do it. Good-night, — 
it 's dark and rainy and windy enough to make 
a move to-morrow certain, — it 's just the night 
to injure forage and rations, and very naturally 
they have arrived. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Near Ripon, Sept. 9, 1864. 
I have stepped into a rather trying position 
now, — the regular Brigade is hard to run ; there 
are many prides and prejudices, — and then. 



338 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

too, much more is expected from an officer 
commanding it, than from one commanding a 
little patched-up affair like my last command. 
However, I shan't worry at all, but shall try 
to do what I can. I don't think I now care at 
all about being a Brigadier-General. I am per- 
fectly satisfied to be a Colonel, if I can always 
have a brigade to command ; — that 's modest, 
is n't it ? 

TO J. M. FORBES 

RiPON, Sept. lo, '64. 
Billy is all right and in excellent spirits, — in 
spite of two more bullets since I last wrote, one 
striking the halter ring, splitting that and mak- 
ing an ugly cut near the throat, which has not 
troubled him in swallowing, however, and is 
now healed, the other (day before yesterday) 
crot'swise through the point of the withers, cut- 
ting the bridle rein and piercing the edge of the 
blanket, the bullet passing quite above all bones 
and apparently not troubling Billy in the least, 
— the wound has already closed and there is no 
soreness about the part, — so I call him "all 
right." I am rather ashamed to confess the 
above, — and so have rather made Billy out to 
be a hero, hoping^the glory would make you for- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 339 

get the risk. You will think it much better Billy- 
should come home at once, but I will try to 
keep him away from bullets hereafter and to 
turn him over to Will without even a healing 
wound. 

As to your question, — I have only seen my 
name once in the papers since I left Fall's 
Church, so I really don't know what I have 
done or where I have been. I have no idea of 
being a brigadier, — for various reasons. 

I believe Sheridan is entirely satisfied with 
what we have done, — I know Augur was, for 
he stipulated that I should have a brigade if the 
Regiment was taken from hinij' — and yester- 
day I was placed in command of the Reserve 
Brigade (the regular Cavalry, — the Second 
Massachusetts being transferred to that, in 
place of the First New York Dragoons, trans- 
ferred to Second Brigade) ; so I am all right 
for the campaign, though I wish we could take 
the offensive, or rather the initiative, a little 
more, instead of being obliged to regulate on 
Early. 

I have great confidence in Sheridan. He 
works at this business as if he were working for 
himself, watches everything himself (except his 
trains occasionally) and keeps his officers pretty 



340 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

well up to their work. If the campaign does 
not succeed, it will not be for want of interest 
and energy on his part. 

TO H. L. HIGGINSON 

RiPON, Va., Sept. lo, '64. 

My dear Henry, — I have been meaning 
to write to you ever since you became Mr. 
again, to ask about your health and prospects ; 
or have n't you any of either ? 

I felt very sorry, old fellow, at your being 
finally obliged to give up, for I know you 
would have liked to see it out ; however, there 
is work enough for a public-spirited cove every- 
where. Labour for recruits and for Linkum, and 
you will do more than by sabring six Confeder- 
ates. How do you earn your bread nowadays : 
or, if you are not earning it, how do you man- 
age to pay for it ? I daily congratulate myself 
that I drink no sugar in my coffee, that butter 
and eggs are unattainable, and that army beef 
is still only 13 cents, — for how should I be 
able to live on my pay ? And for a civilian, 
Mr. Chase's successes must be awful to con- 
template. I hope, Mr. Higginson, that you are 
going to live like a plain Republican, mindful 
of the beauty and the duty of simplicity. No- 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 341 

thing fancy now, Sir, if you please. It 's disrepu- 
table to spend money, when the Government 
is so hard up, and when there are so many poor 
officers. I hope you have outgrown all foolish 
ambitions and are now content to become a 
"useful citizen." . . . Don't grow rich; if you 
once begin, you will find it much more diffi- 
cult to be a useful citizen. The useful citizen 
is a mighty unpretending hero. But we are not 
going to have any Country very long unless 
such heroism is developed. There ! what a stale 
sermon I 'm preaching ; but being a soldier, it 
does seem to me that I should like nothing else 
so well as being a useful citizen. That 's modest, 
is it not ? — well, trying to be one, I mean. I shall 
stay in the service, of course, till the war is over, 
or till I 'm disabled ; but then I look forward 
to a pleasanter career, one in which E. can be 
even a more better half. By Jove ! what I have 
wasted through crude and stupid theories. I 
wish old Stephen were alive. I should like to 
poke fingers through his theories and have him 
poke through mine. How I do envy (or rather 
admire) the young fellows who have something 
to do now without theories, and do it. I believe 
I have lost all my ambitions, old fellow (mili- 
tary ambition Abraham has the " dead thing " 



342 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

on ; he cures us all of that). I don't think I 
would turn my hand to be a distinguished 
chemist or a famous mathematician. All I 
now care about is to be a useful citizen with 
money enough to buy bread and firewood, 
and to teach my children how to ride on horse- 
back and look strangers in the face, especially 
Southern strangers. I'll stop now; don't be 
alarmed. 

Where are you going to live ? — New York 
or further West ; not Boston, I presume, unless 
your father wants you very much, and then why 
not move him too ? What are you going to do ? 
I am beginning to think old Cato was about 
right — "graze well," "graze, graze ill." Graz- 
ing is a good business, though it does take one 
away from the big plans. If I could stand the 
life, however, and could get enough to live upon, 
I suppose I should yield to the temptation of 
New York. . . . Don't take this letter as a 
sample of my usual tone now. I measure every 
word now when I talk. (Did you not caution 
my wife to stop my abuse of the Administra- 
tion in my letters to a certain Army officer, — 
Major H. of First Massachusetts Cavalry, — 
the said talk being dangerous, and the said 
Major untrustworthy ? Know, young man, that 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 343 

I am a good enough friend of the Administra- 
tion to be able to abuse its errors and its over- 
sights without stint to safe ears, but I choose 
my ears carefully.) ' 

I *m forty years old, — yes, forty-five,* — 
and I never talk without thinking now — "a 
devil of a thinking." I wonder whether I shall 
ever see you again to prove this. I fancy the 
hard fighting in the Valley has hardly begun 
yet, though the cavalry has been very busy^ 
and this autumn campaign will run well into 
December. About December 15th I shall try 
for a leave of absence, 30 days, if [ can get it; 
and then perhaps we '11 pass an evening to- 
gether. 

I wish you could have got to Falls Church. 
I was very glad that Mother and Father paid 
me a visit there, when they did, to see how com- 
fortable a wife can be in quarters. However, 
what are quarters to you now, or you to quar- 
ters? . . . 

TO GENERAL FRANCIS C. BARLOW 

RiPON, Va., Sept. 10, '64. 
Take care of yourself, old fellow. Just get 
your mother to take you to some quiet place 
and make much of you — don't think too much 



344 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

of campaigns and of elections. This is n't the 
end of the world, though it is so important for 
us. Don't mind Lincoln's shortcomings too 
much : we know that he has not the first mili- 
tary spark in his composition, not a sense prob- 
ably by which he could get the notion of what 
makes or unmakes an Army, but he is certainly 
much the best candidate for the permanency of 
our republican institutions, and that is the main 
thing. 1 don't think even he can make the peo- 
ple tire of the war. What you want is rest and 
care ; don't be foolish, my dear fellow, and neg- 
lect to take them. Unless you give yourself 
some time now, you will never half complete 
your career. What the devil difference does it 
make where a man passes the next six months, 
if the war is to last six years? If it is to be 
ended in one year, you have done and suffered 
your share in it.' 

There are better things to be done in the 
Country, Barlow, than fighting, and you must 
save yourself for them too. I remember we said 
to each other six months ago, that the man who 
was n't in the coming campaign might as well 
count out. Bah ! it has n't proved. There are 
as many campaigns for a fellow as there are half 
years to his life. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 345 

TO HIS WIFE 
RiPON, Sunday, 8 a. m. (Sept. li). 

A lovely morning after one of the most 
stormy nights I ever remember. Torrents of 
rain and continuous thunder and lightning and 
wind for six or eight hours, — the Doctor ' and 
I were quite washed out, — our tent seemed to 
be a through-drain for all the surrounding coun- 
try. Did you see the moon last evening ? — 
here, she was a perfect stage moon, — the whole 
scene what scene-painters aim at, when they 
have to put her to sleep on a bank. We had 
the band up and they were quite sentimental in 
their choice of music, and I grew as homesick 
as possible. 

I received a long note yesterday from the 
Governor's Secretary, Colonel A. G. Brown, — 
it occupied me yesterday afternoon, and stimu- 
lated me to writing to such a degree that I 
wrote to Mr. H. L. Higginson and to Barlow 
and to Blagden and to Major-General Hitchcock 
and to Cousin John, — the latter about Will, 
who is soon to be released, and about Billy and 
about another little horse (two sizes smaller 
than Billy) which he wishes me to take and 
ride. I accepted the offer conditionally, and 



346 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

with scruples. It is a colt of " Countess's," a 
" Bob Logic " colt, and Mr. F. says is good, 
though small. I hope it won't stop so many 
bullets as Billy. 

I stopped here to send for a paper, and have 
read McClellan's letter. It won't do, though 
it 's much better than a Peace platform. 

TO HIS WIFE 

RipoN, Sept. 12, 1864. 
I 'm expecting to start a new colour for the 
Brigade this afternoon. The old one, — red, 
white, and blue, with cross sabres in the white, — 
is entirely worn out. I shall run up, for the pre- 
sent, a white triangle with dark blue border, and 
cross sabres in the middle, — this is furnished 
by Government ; but in a week or so I expect 
from Baltimore a new one of the old pattern. 
My colour for the old Brigade (3d) was the L 
Company, Second Massachusetts guidon, red 
and white silk, with a wreath and a star with L in 
the centre, — very ambitious forsooth, but the 
prettiest colour in the army. The others are all 
of bunting, except General Sheridan's, and per- 
haps others I have not seen. You '11 wonder at 
me, being willing to carry anything so " gaudy," 
but my well-known modesty enabled me to do it. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 347 

TO HIS WIFE 
RiPON, Sunday, p. M. (Sept. i8th). 

Billy teases me more than he does you. I gen- 
erally resolve to ride some other horse, and do 
ride one till the real time comes, and the other 
horse behaves so that I have to mount Billy in 
a hurry. This has happened three times now. 
The gray and Berold are perfectly unmanage- 
able now, unless one can give them entire at- 
tention. I 'm glad you mentioned Billy, for I 
don't want you to imagine for a moment that 
I was running him into danger inconsiderately. 
I have bothered a good deal about it, but have 
done by him just as I should wish Will to do 
by Berold in like case. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Tuesday evening (September 20). 
We had a very successful action yesterday, 
and the cavalry did well. Both the other bri- 
gades of the division got battle-flags, — one two, 
the other four; we got none, but did well and 
took a couple of guns. Poor Billy was shot in 
three places and is dead. I had not an orderly 
near at the time, or I should have changed him. 
During the afternoon, I had one horse killed 



348 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

and two wounded, — all taken from orderlies. 
I could n't get the gray to go anywhere : I have 
not a scratch. We have two officers of the Sec- 
ond Massachusetts wounded, the Doctor fears, 
mortally, — Lieutenants Baldwin and Thomp- 
son ; Lieutenant Home prisoner: but the Sec- 
ond Massachusetts was not in the real fight, 
for some unaccountable reason it stayed be- 
hind, — so that I had not over 150 men in the 
command at Winchester, — otherwise I think 
we should have done even better. I feel very 
badly about it, but it can't be helped.* We 
are now in front of Strasburg, and the infan- 
try will attack if they come up in time : I fear 
that the enemy will make off in the night, if 
we do not press them. 

TO MISS FORBES 

Near Strasburg, Sept. 21, '64. 

I write to you, rather than to your Father, to 
tell you that poor Billy was mortally wounded 
in the fight of Monday. I know how badly 
you will all feel, — I feel even worse than I did 
when Will was taken. The little fellow was 
shot in three places ; but not being able to get 
up, James finally shot him. He was wounded 
in a charge of the Second U. S. Cavalry to take 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 349 

some guns from Breckenridge's Corps, — the 
charge failed, but not through any fault of men 
or horses. Had there been any of the Second 
Massachusetts near, I should have changed Billy 
before the charge, but I had not even an or- 
derly near me to dismount. The fight of Mon- 
day was a very handsome one for the cavalry. 
I hope that I have heard of a horse in Washing- 
ton, that will mount Will when he returns, — 
but of course he can never replace Billy. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Newmarket, 10 a. m. 
Headquarters Res. Brigade (Sept. 24?). 

We have been in Luray Valley and entirely 
away from communications. I send you a little 
purple Gerardia, picked for you by General 
Wilson (whom you don't know, but who must 
have heard Mr. Dana speak of you) : he had 
just handed it to me, when my unfortunate 
Adjutant-General was shot right behind us (not 
fatal, though we feared so for some time), so it 
has not very pleasant associations. We did cap- 
ture a battle-flag yesterday, so I 'm tolerably 
satisfied. If you could only look in here for a 
minute, — it's in the loveliest mountain scenery 
you can imagine.' 



350 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

TO HIS WIFE 
Staunton, 7 a. m., Sept. 27, 1864. 
I did n't tell you what a magnificent spring- 
wagon I have now, — four styHsh white horses 
and driver to manoeuvre them, — it beats Tyler's 
red turnout, I think : it 's for you to ride out in 
next winter. In this army (and in the Army of 
the Potomac) some such affair is a recognized 
part of a brigade commander's equipment, — 
general orders always mention a spring-wagon 
for each headquarters, &c., — so you see we are 
likely to be very magnificent this winter, — as 
commanding the Regular Brigade I am ex- 
pected to indulge in even more luxe than my 
neighbours, — we shall quite disappoint the 
world, — shan't we, — with our republican sim- 
plicity ! I have n't told you either that, the day 
before yesterday at Luray, I organized a small 
black boy, bright enough and well brought 
up; his name is James, but as we have already 
two of that name about here, I call him Lu- 
ray, which is quite aristocratic. You can teach 
him to read and to write this winter, if you 
have time. The Doctor thinks you would find 
more satisfaction in him than in your pupils of 
Vienna. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 351 

I wish you could see the splendid country 
we are in, — we are about one mile beyond 
Staunton, facing towards the Blue Ridge — we 
have found out pretty well where the Rebs are, 
and I have a notion that we shall be getting 
back pretty soon toward the infantry. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Waynesboro, Sept. 28, 1864. 

I expect orders to move very soon, — we 
have a way now of marching late into the night 
and of starting very early in the morning, which 
is not very pleasant. 

I used to look forward to things somehow 
— now I don't look forward, but all the old 
pleasure of looking forward seems to be stirred 
in with things as they come along. I can't 
explain what I mean, but the difference is im- 
mense. 

TO HIS WIFE 
Near Mt. Crawford, Sept. 30, 1864. 
We did leave Waynesboro' the other after- 
noon, and in a hurry, — what was left of Early's 
army came in upon our left flank and came near 
doing us a mischief, but we got away in the dark 
and marching all night reached here yesterday 



352 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

evening, — and are safe under the wing of the 
infantry. Colonel Crowninshield lost " Jim " 
(his old sorrel, you know, which you used to 
recognize so often), and in the march lost 
"Tinker" and the pack-mule which carried his 
mess things. Mr. Kinny got a slight wound 
from a spent ball and Lieutenant Woodman had 
his leg broken, and the ball is still in, making 
an ugly wound. I had a horse hit, but only 
slightly, — a Sergeant of the Second Cavalry 
claims to have saved my life by running in and 
getting very badly sabred himself.' 

Here we are all safe and comfortable again, 
however, after a long night's sleep, — to bed at 
9, and not up till 6.30. 

TO HIS WIFE 
Near Mt. Crawford, Oct. 5, 1864. 

I have reveille about one hour before day- 
break, — am always awake, but never get up 
now, unless there are Rebs round. 

Did you see the new moon last night within a 
quarter of an inch of the evening star, and turn- 
ing her back on him ? They must have been 
close together an hour before I could see them ; 
for an hour after, they were still less than an 
inch apart. They looked very strangely calm 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 353 

and peaceful and almost reproachful in the 
West last night, — with the whole North and 
East, far and near, lighted up by burning barns 
and houses. Lieutenant Meigs was shot by a 
guerrilla, and by order the village of Dayton and 
everything for several miles around was burned.' 
I am very glad my Brigade had no hand in it. 
Though if it will help end bushwhacking, I ap- 
prove it, and I would cheerfully assist in making 
this whole Valley a desert from Staunton north- 
ward, — for that would have, I am sure, an im- 
portant effect on the campaign of the Spring, — 
but in partial burnings I see less justice and 
less propriety. I was sorry enough the other 
day that my Brigade should have had a part in 
the hanging and shooting of some of Mosby's 
men who were taken, — I believe that some 
punishment was deserved, — but I hardly think 
we were within the laws of war, and any viola- 
tion of them opens the door for all sorts of 
barbarity, — it was all by order of the Division 
Commander, however. The war in this part of 
the country is becoming very unpleasant to an 
officer's feelings. 

We have moved camp once every day since 
Saturday, but only for short distances ; so the 
date is still the same. 



354 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

I think [the mail-carrier] is miserably 

timid about guerrillas, — he won't come unless 
he has at least a brigade for escort, — perhaps 
he is right, however ; important despatches 
from General Grant to Sheridan were taken, 
day before yesterday, by guerrillas, — provoking 
enough when we are hoping to hear that Peters- 
burg is taken, or perhaps to get the orders which 
instruct us how to cooperate in taking it." 

I think that we shall move soon. As we are 
foraging our horses entirely upon the coun- 
try, we have to move frequently, but lately we 
have done a little too much of it. This is 
a very scrubby letter and written before break- 
fast, too. 

I do wish this war was over! . . . Never 
mind. I 'm doing all I can to end it. Good-bye. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Edinburg, Oct. 7, 1864. 
About leaves ; that is a thing I don't like to 
do, — come away from the field before winter- 
quarters, — especially with a new command, — 
even if we go into winter-quarters for a few 
weeks soon. I feel as if I ought to devote my- 
self to my command, — I should certainly be 
missed then. 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 355 

TO HIS WIFE 
Near Strasburg, Sunday, 7 a. m., Oct. 9. 

Our boys haven't been able to find any water 
for us this morning and we have n't washed our 
faces, — the first time that I remember in the 
" history of the war." It 's jolly cold however, so 
we don't mind so much. We actually had snow 
flurries yesterday, and to-day promises worse. 

We had a skirmish yesterday with their cav- 
alry.' Lieutenant Tucker wounded and Ser- 
geant Wakefield ; — the roan horse killed, and 
to-day I shall have to ride the gray unless I 
can find Sergeant Wakefield's horse. Enos has 
been looking for him for two hours. We are 
expecting another brush with their cavalry to- 
day, as we are ordered to advance again. I 
should like to have Sundays quiet. 

TO HIS WIFE 
Near Strasburg, Monday, Oct. 10. 

It 's just noon, and we have gone into camp 
for the day in a lovely green field with plenty 
of forage, and lots of rails to burn, — and I 've 
just had a bath, soaped from head to heel. It's 
still cold (frost and ice this a. m. and I had to 
lie out with nothing but my overcoat) and I 



356 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

have two or three slight colds in the head, — 
but it 's splendid October and very exhilarating. 
Enos found Sergeant Wakefield's horse yes- 
terday and I rode him all day, and he did n't 
get hit, though his saddle did, and our Brigade 
chased two Rebel brigades more than ten miles, 
and took a battle-flag and four guns and cais- 
sons and wagons, &c., &c., so my disinclination 
for " fight " yesterday morning was a presenti- 
ment that came to naught.' 

I've said (to the Doctor and others) again 
and again that, if I was taken, I did n't want any 
special exchange, and wanted that understood, 
and I guess that's the way you feel too, in 
spite of your " concluding " that you did ap- 
prove of special exchanges. It would be very 
hard, but I don't believe that I should be ill 
there, or should suffer even my share, and you 
would know just what the risk was. There 's 
not one chance in a great many, however, that 
I shall be taken, — that's consoling. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Cedar Creek, Oct. 12, 1864. 
We 've gone into a pleasant camp to-day (last 
evening), directly upon the Shenandoah, and are 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 357 

likely to stay for a week, I think, — our horses 
needing rest sadly. I am glad it is not nearer 
Winchester, for then I should be tempted to wish 
you might come down for a few days, or I might 
go home, but now we are still in the front, and 
it is out of the question. 

How shall you like to have me come home 
in Government clothing ? — they *re so much 
cheaper, I hope you won't object. I like them 
better too, think them more respectable, when 
tailors charge I32 for trousers, and Government 
only $5 ; or $75 for coats, and Government only 
^4. This is a poetic letter, is n't it? You must 
keep your eyes open for opportunities for both 
of us after the war, — I mean, be thinking about 
the matter. You see I talk quite rationally now 
about "after the war," — it may be ten years, in 
which case I shall probably never leave the army, 
but it may be only ten months, and then we don't 
want to be taken by surprise. I *m galloping 
over this and the officer is waiting at the tent 
door, so Good-bye. 

TO HIS WIFE 

October (?), 1864. 

... I don't want to be shot till I 've had 
a chance to come home. I have no idea that I 



358 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

shall be hit, but I want so much not to now, 
that it sometimes frightens me. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Cedar Creek, Oct. 12, 1864. 
It's raining again this afternoon, and I am 
interrupted in the midst of my airing and drying 
operations. I have a drill going on, however, 
about 100 yards in front of our tents, — the 
first drill since we left Vienna, I believe ! — 
and I stop every now and then to look out and 
see the recruits. You would n't enjoy it much, 
for it's dismounted only. I like to have you 
write a little sometimes about the war and 
about politics, — they're the best views I get 
now, or ever get indeed^ — and you need only 
make the letters a little longer, you know. 
A'nt I exorbitant ? I always was, — I believe 
the first word I learned to say was "more." It 
was with reference to crackers, I think after eat- 
ing several dozen. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Cedar Creek, Oct. 13, 1864. 
/ went into winter-quarters yesterday, that is, 
I abandoned thin boots for morning wear, and 
substituted the Guvveys' with leather ears, 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 359 

which you may recollect, — you can fancy me 
now in alf the magnificence of them. In pro- 
posing to come home in Government clothing, 
I did not think of parading New York in those 
ears ; don't be alarmed. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Cedar Creek, Oct. 14, 1864. 

Firelight, 4 a. m. 

I sent such a fat- looking envelope yesterday 
morning, with only one sheet after all, that I 
meant to have written again in the afternoon, 
but at dinner the Rebs began sheUing the infan- 
try camp on our right, and then the " general " 
sounded, and then we waited a while in the cold, 
and then we moved, — so I had no time at all." 

TO HIS WIFE 

Cedar Creek, Oct. 14, 1864. 

You're an innocent. Go on with the shoulder- 
straps, you need n't be expecting any change, 
— those eagles will flourish a good while yet. 
I 'm perfectly satisfied too, now that I have this 
Brigade; it has only been commanded before 
by Buford and Merritt. Colonel Gibbs had it 
for a few weeks at a time temporarily.* 

Our movements here are so entirely depend- 



360 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

ent on Grant' s success before Richmond, that 
I can't form the faintest idea of the prospect of 
a speedy rest here. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Cedar Creek, Oct. 15, 1864. 

I 've only ten minutes to write to you ; I was 
out all this morning visiting, junketing at the 
various headquarters, and only came home to 
dinner at two o'clock. Since that, has come an 
order to get in light marching order, and be in 
readiness to move. I conjecture a raid is on 
foot for our Division, — perhaps to Charlottes- 
ville, — if so, you will not hear from me again 
for a week or even ten days. 

I think Sheridan will have to fight one more 
battle here, probably while we are gone, — I am 
sorry to miss it, but perhaps we shall be of more 
use where we are going. You will know that 1 am 
safe, at any rate, — so safe do I feel to-night that 
I shall be riding Berold ; I rode him this morn- 
ing, too, in making my calls. I heard for the 
first time that poor Colonel Wells of the Thirty- 
Fourth Massachusetts was killed in the attack 
the Rebs made on our camps day before yester- 
day, — he was considered an excellent officer.' 

What a letter this for the last one for ten 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 361 

days, but you know how I am when I have 
anything on foot, I 'm all distracted. 

TO HIS WIFE 

Cedar Creek, Oct. 16, 1864. 

We started all right last evening and marched 
till I A. M., camped at Front Royal till 5.30 a, m. 
and were then ready for a fresh start, — waited 
till nearly 7 a. m. and then started back on our 
winding way to near our old camp, — some 
new information received, or some wise second 
thought, having changed plans. I am not very 
sorry, and suppose you will not be, for I can- 
not see any great military benefit to result from 
it. The destruction of a few stores or of a few 
miles of railroad would not have been worth 
the injury to horseflesh. I am glad to be back 
here, and I hope to get letters to-night or to- 
morrow, — better to-morrow, for I 'm too sleepy 
this afternoon to enjoy them.' 

Oct. 17th, Same camp. 

Good-morning. Such a night's sleep as I had 
— ten hours strong — only interrupted a few 
minutes at reveille, waking up and reflecting 
cosily that it was not yet time to turn out ! 

I am very glad that George is nominated for 



362 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

Congress, and hope that, in the great revolution 
which has been going on, his chance of election 
may be better than you describe it.' 

TO CHARLES E. PERKINS 

Cedar Creek, Oct. 17, 1864. 

I hope and trust and believe that you are 
doing all you can for Lincoln, — and I believe 
that McClellan's election would send this coun- 
try to where Mexico and South America are. 
Do what you can to prevent it. 

TO J. M. FORBES 

Cedar Creek, Oct. 17, 1864. 
In spite of Will's anxiety to be back with us, 
and of our desire to have him back, I cannot 
but hope for your sake that he may somehow 
be delayed till we are safely in winter-quarters. 
Mails are very irregular up and down the Val- 
ley, and during active operations I am sure you 
and Mrs. Forbes would be constantly anxious 
about him, — more even than you can be now. 
Let him come back in time to open the Spring 
with us; that will be early enough to "retrieve 
all disasters" that you speak of. It was very 
kind of you to write me as you did about Billy; 
I know how you feel about him. I will tell 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 363 

you, what I believe I did not tell Alice, that I 
got off and walked some time before finally 
deciding to take him into the charge where he 
was hit, and that I had three orderlies' horses 
killed or disabled under me that day. I tried 
to use him as I knew you and Will would wish 
him used. He was a dear little horse, — did not 
always have a sore back, had got over that 
weakness bravely, — you see he was improving 
to the last day of his life. 

I get the Chaplain's " Army and Navy Jour- 
nal " for the present, — shall subscribe myself 
when he returns, — I have generally liked its ar- 
ticles about operations before Richmond, as they 
told me all I ever learned about that campaign. 
Its notices about this Shenandoah campaign 
have not been very good: it has been wrong 
in some most important facts and in some of 
its criticisms. It has been entirely wrong too 
in praising so constantly; from the be- 
ginning has been the laughing-stock here, — his 
absurd newspaper reporter may have caused 
this, — but worse than that, his false despatches 
to the General and his constant habit of having 
" infantry " in front of him, and of falling back 
" pressed," have on two occasions come very 
near causing great disasters. 



364 LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

I am very glad, my dear Mr. Forbes, that we 
have not a handy writer among us. The repu- 
tation of regiments is made and is known in the 
Army, — the comparative merits are well known 

there. Such a notice as I saw of the th 

Cavalry makes a regiment ridiculous, besides 
giving the public false history, — yet I have no 
doubt the writer meant to be honest. 

TO HIS MOTHER 

Cedar Creek, Oct. 17, '64. 

There's really nothing to tell here; I never 
have anything to tell even to E. We are in a 
glorious country, with fine air to breathe and fine 
views to enjoy ; we are kept very active, and have 
done a good deal of good work ; I have done my 
share, I think, — but there 's nothing to make 
a letter of. 

We hear to-day that Pennsylvania and Indi- 
ana are all right. Poor Grant seems to have a 
hard task at Richmond : he has n't the same 
army now that he started with in May, and I 
shall not be surprised if he is obliged to go 
into winter-quarters soon and re-organize, or at 
least drill. If so, people must be patient; we 
are going quite fast enough. I only write this 
to make you write to me. Is n't it lucky that 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 365 

I keep always well and hearty? My friends 
never feel any anxiety on that account and I 
never have to write letters to tell them how 
I am/ 



Breathe, trumpets, breathe slow notes of saddest wailing. 
Sadly responsive peal, ye muffled drums. 
Comrades, with downcast eyes and muskets trailing. 
Attend him home : the youthful warrior comes. 

Wrap round his breast the flag that breast defended. 
His Country's flag, in battle's front enrolled : 
For it he died, — on earth forever ended 
His brave young life lives in each sacred fold.* 



NOTES ON THE LIFE 



NOTES ON THE LIFE 

Page 4, note i. Ten days after Charles Isowell's death at 
Cedar Creek, the Rev. Cyrus A. Bartol, minister of the 
West Church in Boston (the church of the young soldier's 
grandfather. Dr. Charles Lowell), in his memorial sermon, 
**The Purchase by Blood," said of the grandson's ances- 
try : '* He had of talent a heritage fourfold, and was of a 
lineage on either side distinguished in the foremost places of 
business, inventive enterprise, and every useful profession. . . . 
In his own achievements he but continued the line of ancient 
fame, — his great-grandfather Lowell having, from a righteous 
and instructive foresight, so worded the preamble to our Bill 
of Rights as to make slavery forever void in Massachusetts." 

The late Colonel Henry Lee, who knew everything about 
Boston and her old families, v\Tote to Mr. John M. Forbes 
after reading his reminiscences of Lowell : ** Go on with your 
thousand and one instances of Charlie Lowell's ceaseless vigi- 
lance, sleepless conscience, all of which came straight down 
from his grandfather, Patrick Jackson. When he [Patrick Jack- 
son] died, the old Colonel shut himself up in his room, for 
never lived three such men as the Judge, the Doctor, and 
Patrick. Their eyes were single, and their whole bodies full 
of light." The *< old Colonel" was Thomas Handasyd 
Perkins, a leading merchant in Boston, with whom both Mr. 
Forbes and Colonel Lee had family and business connections. 

Pige 5, note i. Charles Lowell's aunt. Miss Ellen Jack- 
son, gave these traits of his childhood: ** As a child, he cared 



370 NOTES ON THE LIFE 

so much that he was a great cry -baby, showing the intensity 
of his purpose and desire. He was very easily influenced by 
talk, when properly approached and made to understand the 
matter. His feelings were strongly affected by reading or 
hearing of suffering or heroism. But he was a very droll little 
boy, fiill of spirits, fun, and laughter. A keen sense and love 
of the ludicrous always remained with him and made his talk 
delightful." 

Page ^, note 2. These, in the order mentioned by their 
uncle, are William Lowell Putnam, James Jackson Lowell, 
and Charles Russell Lowell. It is of them, too, that he spoke 
in the poem Memoriae Positum, — 

*'I speak of one 
While with sad eyes I think of three." 

William Putnam was his sister's son. He was commissioned 
second lieutenant in the Twentieth Massachusetts Infantry 
in July, 1 86 1, and in October was killed in his first battle, at 
Ball's Bluff. Professor Francis J. Child speaks of " Putnam, 
with his fair hair, bright complexion, deep eyes, and uncon- 
taminated countenance," as "the impersonation of knightly 
youth." The late Colonel William H. Forbes wrote of him: 
"I only saw him once or twice, but sometimes wonder why 
•his face . . . always comes so plainly when his name is 
mentioned; a delicate, but firm and noble face. No touch 
of earthliness had yet come to him ; ' ' and adds, of James 
Lowell, whom he knew well, •♦ He was like his cousin Put- 
nam, gentle, but very fine, though firm enough too." James 
Lowell was a captain in the Twentieth Massachusetts Regi- 
ment, was wounded at Ball's Bluff, and a year later mortally 
wounded in the battle of Fair Oaks or Glendale. 



NOTES ON THE LIFE 371 

Page 8, note i. This boy was Henry Lee Higginson, 
Lowell's nearest friend, who, though he served his country as 
an officer, first of infantry (Twentieth Massachusetts) and 
later of cavalry (First Massachusetts), until disabled by wounds, 
happily to this day is serving her as a usefial, eminent, and be- 
loved citizen. 

In the Life of Richard H. Dana by Charles Francis Adams 
there is a very interesting account, from Mr. Dana's diary, 
of the incidents of the trial and rendition of the fugitive slave, 
Anthony Burns. 

Page 14., note i. One who knew Lowell well, writing of 
this experience, said: "I think his feeling of the close rela- 
tions of men to one another began as soon as he had any 
thought or ideas. He had a very tender feeling always to the 
less fortunate of mankind. He liked discipline, wished each 
person to do his part well, but his instincts and sympathies 
were, I think, with the workers, and he cherished the hope of 
helping them to have richer and nobler lives. I remember his 
eager sympathy with the workmen at Chicopee. He wanted 
them to have singing classes, and asked me to give him some good 
novels to lend them in place of the wretched trash they had. ' ' 

Page ly, note i. The Burlington and Missouri River Rail- 
road, in Iowa. Lowell was sent there by Mr. John Murray 
Forbes, one of the directors. 

Page 23, note l. General Stoneman was in command of 
the cavalry in the Peninsula. Brigadier-General PhiHp St. 
George Cooke, under him, commanding the First and Sixth 
U. S. Cavalry, pursued the rebel force retreating on Williams- 
burg after the abandonment of Yorktown on May 5. This 
command overtook General Stuart's cavalry defending the Con- 
federate rear, and skirmished with them. Soon after, emerging 



372 NOTES ON THE LIFE 

from the woods, they found themselves before the earthworks 
here defending the narrowed Peninsula, the most important 
of which was Fort Magruder, six feet high and with a ditch 
in front. The cavalry were drawn up in line of battle, and 
private Robbins supposed the order was to "charge Fort 
Magruder." The fact was that the works were impregnable 
to cavalry, the infantry was far behind, and General Stoneman 
wished to show a bold front meantime. Seeing that the enemy 
were sending out infantry to turn his right, he made a demon- 
stration on their flank and some good charges were made by 
our cavalry which gained time. But the infantry not arriving. 
General Stoneman withdrew his troops from the galling fire 
from the works for the night. 

Page 24, note i. As Captain Lowell's orderly wrote these 
reminiscences of the Peninsula fighting at least three years after 
the occurrences mentioned, he seems, not unnaturally, to have 
mixed up the incidents of two or more actions in that fatiguing 
and exciting campaign. The story seems to refer to the 
cavalry fighting on May 9, but perhaps also to the actions 
on May 27 and 29 at Hanover Court House and Slatersville 
when the bridges over the South Anna were destroyed, thus 
cutting off all communications with Richmond from the North. 
General McClellan, in his account of his campaigns published 
after his death (with unfortunate additions by his editor), thus 
writes of the first action : — 

♦* On the 9th, Stoneman occupied and held the junction 
of the West Point and Williamsburg roads, about three miles 
from New Kent Court House. The occupation of this place 
occurred as the result of a brisk skirmish in which a portion 
of the Sixth U. S. Cavalry, under Major Williams, and Rob- 
inson's Battery took part ; one squadron of the Sixth, under 



NOTES ON THE LIFE 373 

the personal command of Major Williams, made two very- 
handsome charges." Major Williams had general command, 
but of course the captain led his own squadron. 

The incident of Lowell's disconcerting the antagonist with 
the shot-gun is authentic, and not hard to believe by any one 
who knew his commanding personality. His brother James, 
the infantry captain, wrote home : — 

" 1 heard yesterday of a narrow escape which Charley had. 
He was charging, and came upon a man who aimed a double- 
barrelled carbine at him. C. called out to him, ' Drop that ! ' 
and he lowered it enough to blow to pieces C.'s coat which 
was strapped on his horse behind him." 

Lowell never mentioned the matter, but long after, being 
asked by the lady who became his wife if it were true, simply- 
said, *' You can usually make a man obey you if you speak 
quickly enough and with authority." 

Page 26, note i. General McClellan records : — 

** On May 28, a party under Major Williams, Sixth U. S. 
Cavalry, destroyed the common road bridges over the Pamun- 
key, and Virginia Central Railroad bridge over the South 
Anna. On the 29th he destroyed the Fredericksburg and Rich- 
mond Railroad bridge over the South Anna and the turnpike 
bridge over the same stream." In answer to the despatch 
announcing this. President Lincoln replied : — 

" Your despatch as to the South Anna and Ashland being 
seized by our forces this morning is received. Understanding 
these points to be on the Richmond and Fredericksburg Rail- 
road, I heartily congratulate the country, and thank General 
McClellan and his army for their seizure." 

Page 2g, note i. Captain Lowell was not promoted for 
service at Antietam. 



374 NOTES ON THE LIFE 

Page jl, note i. Mrs. Lowell, anxious that the exact 
facts be known, wrote for me this account of the 

MUTINY IN BOSTON. 

•* A very painful incident took place while Colonel Lowell 
was recruiting for the Second Cavalry, which impressed him 
very much. 

** Stopping as usual, at eight o'clock one morning, at the re- 
cruiting station, he found the small squad of new recruits who 
were to be transferred that day to the camp at Readville, in a 
state of mutiny. Hearing the noise on his arrival, he de- 
scended at once to the basement, and the Sergeant in command 
explained that he had ordered a man to be handcuffed, that 
the others had said it was unjust and should not be done, 
and had resisted. Colonel Lowell at once said : ' The order 
must be obeyed.' ' No ! No ! ' shouted the men. He con- 
tinued : * After it is obeyed, I will hear what you have to 
say, and wiU decide the case on its merits, but it must be 
obeyed ^rj/. God knows, my men, I don't want to kill any 
of you ; but I shall shoot the first man who resists. Sergeant, 
iron your man.' As the Sergeant stepped forward with the 
irons, the men made a rush, and Colonel Lowell shot the 
leader, who fell at once. The men succumbed immediately, 
some bursting into tears, such was their excitement. 

*'The whole incident was very painftil to Colonel Lowell, 
especially because he had always regarded it as one of the 
privileges of an officer that he did not have to kill with his own 
hand. 

" The circumstances, however, turned out as fortunately as 
was possible in such a case. The man had no relatives, so far 
as could be discovered, and his record showed that he was a 



NOTES ON THE LIFE 375 

very bad man, and had previously been in the Regular Army, so 
that he knew very well what he was doing in resisting an order." 

One of Governor Andrew's staff, who was present when 
Colonel Lowell reported his action, gave the following ac- 
count, which I copy from Professor Peirce's life of Lowell in 
the Harvard Memorial Biographies : — 

'• Entering his Excellency's room, he made a military salute 
and said, • I have to report to you, sir, that in the discharge 
of my duty I have shot a man ; ' then saluted again, and im- 
mediately withdrew. * I need nothing more,' said the Gov- 
ernor to a bystander, « Colonel Lowell is as humane as he is 
brave.'" . 

Page 4J, note I. " Mudwall " would appear to have 
been a nickname given by our soldiers to Brigadier-General 
W. L. Jackson, one of Early's cavalry commanders. 

Page 50, note i. This charge, which appears to have been 
the same as the second described by Dr. DeWolf in the 
following letter, was made with the object of capturing pris- 
oners for the sake of obtaining information. It was of the ut- 
most importance for Sheridan to know when the reenforce- 
ments lately sent to Early should be withdrawn, that he might 
resume the offensive. 

Page 55, note i. Mr. George E. Pond, in The Shenan- 
doah Falley, in Scribner's "Campaigns of the Civil War." 

Page 60, note i. I borrow these lines from ** Keenan's 
Charge," a spirited and moving ballad written by the late 
George Parsons Lathrop. It is founded on an incident of the 
battle of Chancellorsville, but unhappily the facts had been 
grossly misrepresented to its author, giving credit to a gen- 
eral who deserved none, but deliberately gave false testimony 
before the Committee on the Conduct of the War. The fact 



376 NOTES ON THE LIFE 

remains, however, that Major Keenan fought gallantly and fell 
with many of his Pennsylvanian troopers in a purely acci- 
dental charge, due to stumbling upon a marching column of 
the enemy in a wood-path, at a critical time in the battle. 

Page 64, note I. Colonel S. H. Hastings, of Denver, 
Colorado, who rode out by Colonel Lowell's side to recon- 
noitre, and received him into his arms when, struck by the 
first ball, he reeled on his horse, told me the circumstances of 
this first wounding, and showed me the distorted Minie rifle 
baU which fell out when he opened the Colonel's clothing 
to search for what he and Lowell had supposed was a fatal 
wound. Colonel Hastings then rejoined his command, by 
Lowell's order, and was not with him when the mortal shot 
struck him. 

Page 65, note i. Although the great final movement to 
victory had begun, Lowell fell leading a charge on a destruc- 
tive battery opposite his part of the line. This appears in 
Colonel Crowninshield's official report, and was also told to 
me, two months after the battle, by one of the officers. An- 
other charge led by Colonel Crowninshield succeeded. Of 
it Chaplain Humphreys quotes him as having said: **I never 
expected to succeed or get out alive. The enemy's fire was 
terrific. Compared with it Ball's Bluff was child's play. But 
I saw the infantry charging on the right and I charged and said, 
' God, just take my soul ! ' " 

Page 70, note i. At the end of the Notes to the Letters 
is given the testimony of General Lowell's superior officers. 
Here, I have the privilege of quoting the tributes of some of 
those who served in his own regiment. 

Captain Archibald McKendry, speaking, long after the war, 
to his brother officers and soldiers in San Francisco, said : 



NOTES ON THE LIFE 377 

** Lowell towered grandly above his fellow-men in my es- 
timation twenty years ago, and in memory he grows greater 
to me as the years go by." 

Dr. J. Warren Ball, one of the few survivors of the line- 
officers of the Second Cavalry in Boston, said lately to me : 
** Lowell had a vigorous mind and his action was equally 
so. He was in the army to advance his side, and absolutely 
reckless of self. His men regarded him as an efficient officer. 
He always occupied a better position than his commission 
called for. Colonel Lowell was genial, in a sense, — forceful 
when he talked. In action, he seemed, so to speak, prepos- 
sessed of the situation, and self possessed." 

Rev. Mr. Humphreys, the chaplain, said this to me of his 
chief: *^ Nobody could disobey him. When he commanded, 
the thing was done." By Mr. Humphreys' kindness I add 
the following passage from his notes of the war to the same pur- 
pose. " With the Regulars of his command it may have been 
the prompt obedience of discipline, but with the Massachu- 
setts volunteers, it was the prompt obedience of trust. He was 
always ready to expose himself when the occasion demanded, 
and once, with his own sabre, he cut down a rebel who was 
reaching out his hand to seize a colour. Yet, with all this 
overflowing energy of action, Lowell had a deep repose of 
thought, and delighted in nothing more than philosophic con- 
templation. How often on the march, in scouts after guerrillas, 
and even in the near presence of danger, have I listened with 
wonder to his subtle speculations in metaphysics and his keen 
insights in social science ! He kept always his refined taste and 
his scholarly habit. He dwelt always in the purest atmosphere 
of high thought and delicate feeling." Major Henry Lee 
Higginson, Lowell's nearest friend and brother-officer, — 



378 NOTES ON THE LIFE 

though not of his regiment, — after I read him the above words 
of Chaplain Humphreys, wrote : "It reminded me of what 
Mrs. Lowell [his mother] once said to me about Charley. 
Speaking of him and of his habits of thought, she mentioned 
the old Eastern philosophers, who disappeared, as it were, 
sunk themselves in profound thought about profound subjects. 
She admired this mood, or state of mind or spirit, in him and 
thought it remarkable, and so it was. Charley was very fond 
of metaphysics and of philosophy, and very fond of going as 
far up and down as he could in his speculations about the 
mind and the spirit and the meaning of this life." 

Page yi, note I. These lines are from the poem " Suspiria 
Coeli. ' ' The author, Henry Howard Brownell of Hartford, 
Connecticut, was, happily for posterity, an officer on Admiral 
Farragut's flag-ship, and to him we owe the epics ** The Bay 
Fight," *< The River Fight," the popular satire on Secession, 
called ** The Old Cove," and other verses of a noble patriot- 
ism in his L-jrics of a Day. 



NOTES TO THE. LETTERS 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Page 75, note I. The following letter remains, written by 
Charles Lowell, a boy of nine, to Henry Lee Higginson, his 
more than lifelong friend. The two families lived near to one 
another in Boston, the Lowells in Winter Place, the Higgin- 
sons in Chauncy Place ; later, the Lowells moved to Quincy 
Street, Cambridge. 

School House, ii a. m. 

To Henry L, Higginson, Esq., 

Dear and Honoured Sir, — I have marked the forenoon 
and evening lesson in your book. School does not keep to- 
morrow, and I hope you will be well enough to go out and play. 
Your obedient serv't, 

C. R. Lowell, Jr. 
(Written about November, 1844.) 

Page y^, note 2. In those days, on the first Monday evening 
after the College assembled in September, a football match 
always took place on the Delta between the newly entered 
class and the Sophomores. Three games were played, usually 
won by the older, stronger, and united class over young boys 
brought together for the first time. Then, according to in- 
variable custom, the Juniors joined the Freshmen, and the 
Seniors the Sophomores for three more games. This was a 
generation before the importation from England of the present 
game, and football was really the kicking of an inflated india- 
rubber ball to goal, with no formation, an indefinitely large 



382 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

number of players, and active "scrimmages," but the ball 
must be struck with foot or hand. On ** Bloody Monday" 
night, however, the game became gradually increasingly 
rough, and many local fights arose. This led the Faculty to 
forbid the game in i860, when the football was bm-ied on the 
Delta with solemn rites, resulting in human sacrifices on the 
altar of parietal justice. Three years later, its Resurrection oc- 
curred, followed by other sacrifices of the same kind. Finally, 
on the fatal anniversary, in 1864, the Apotheosis of the foot- 
ball occurred, and while a hymn was sung, the soul of the 
football (a child's balloon stained black), soared into the 
twilight heaven from the Delta. 

Page yy, note i. In this letter, addressed to Lowell's near- 
est friend, the names of two others appear, James Savage 
and Stephen Perkins, who, ten years later, as officers of the 
Second Massachusetts Infantry, lost their lives at the battle 
of Cedar Mountain. Major Henry Higginson, when he gave 
to Harvard College the Soldiers' Field, dedicated *'to the 
Happy Memory of" his •'friends, comrades, kinsmen, who 
died for their country," said, after speaking of five of them: — 

*' These friends were of unusual powers, but they all bowed 
down to the goodness and purity of one other, — James Savage. 
He also was an enthusiast, who had little health and no words, 
but ate himself up with his thoughts and his fiery wishes; 
sometimes as gay as a lark, and then depressed from ill 
health and disappointment with himself; very fond of his 
books and of nature; much given to games, and a great rusher 
at football from pure will-power and enthusiasm; courageous 
to the last degree. We two fellows went to Fitchburg, just 
after war was declared, to recruit a company for the Second 
Massachusetts Infantry, and when our regiment was ready to 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 383 

march, the colours were entrusted to us. This recruiting was 
strange work to us all, and the men who came to our little 
recruiting ofEce asked many new questions which I did my 
best to answer, but often these recruits would turn to the 
• Captain,' as they called him, listen to his replies and then 
swear allegiance, as it were, to him. He, the quietest and most 
modest of men, was immensely impressive, for he was a real 
knight, just and gentle to all friends, defiant to the enemies 
of his country, and to all wrong-doers. He also fell wounded 
in that most foolish battle where his regiment was sacrificed to 
the good of the army. He died in the hands of the enemy, 
who tended him kindly, and were deeply moved by his patience 
and his fortitude. . . . 

•' Another fine, handsome fellow, great oarsman, charming 
companion, wit, philosopher, who delighted in intellectual 
pursuits, and in his fellow creatures, whom he watched with 
his keen eyes and well understood, was killed in a foolish, 
bloody battle while stemming the tide of defeat. He was at 
this time too ill to march, but with other sick officers left 
the ambulances because he was needed in this fight. I well 
remember almost our last day together, sitting on a log in a 
sluggish stream in Maryland . . . and his wonderful talk 
of the delights of an intellectual life. That was his realm, 
and no one in our young days did more to mould his mates 
than Stephen Perkins did." 

Page y8, note i. The late James Mills Peirce, who suc- 
ceeded his father, Benjamin Peirce, as Professor of Mathe- 
matics in Harvard College. He wrote the admirable memoir 
of Lowell, to which I am indebted, in the Harvard Memorial 
Biographies. 

Page yg, note i. Mr. Frankhn Benjamin Sanborn, still 



384 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

living in Concord, who graduated a year later than Lowell. At 
that time and for eight years thereafter, he had a remarkable 
private school there. In spite of Mr. Sanborn's radical opin- 
ions, never concealed, on religion and politics — he was the 
friend of Theodore Parker and John Brown — the school 
drew and held sons and daughters of parents of strong and 
opposite opinions from the North and South, East and West. 
General Butler's nephew, two youths of slaveholding ante- 
cedents, a Baltimore fire-eater, three daughters of John Brown 
and one of advanced Philadelphia Quakers, a son of Whitman 
of Kansas celebrity, the children of John M. Forbes and of 
Boston families, those of Judge Hoar, Horace Mann, Haw- 
thorne, Emerson, and others in Concord, and many from the 
farming towns around, were there happily assembled. 

Page 7p, note 2. James Brindley, born in Derbyshire, 
England, in 1 716, was a remarkable engineer. It is told of 
him that " he seldom used any model or drawing, but when 
any material difficulty intervened, quietly retired to bed, and 
there meditated on the best mode of overcoming it." Carlyle, 
in his Past and Present, lauds Brindley as a silent Man of 
Practice, as contrasted to the adroit Man of Theory. 

Page 80, note i. The late John Chandler Bancroft, an 
artist, son of Hon. George Bancroft, the historian. 

Page 81, note I. William James Potter, Lowell's classmate, 
then a teacher; later, earnest in promoting the Free Religious 
Association, and the valued minister of the First Congrega- 
tional Society in New Bedford. His honourable course, when 
drafted as a soldier, is told in a later letter. 

Page 82, note i. Rev. Phillips Brooks, afterwards Bishop, 
was a junior when Lowell was a senior. 

Page 8y, note i. Herbert's beautiful poem beginning: — 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 385 

** Teach me, my God and King, 
In all things Thee to see. 
And what I do in anything 
To do it as for Thee." 

The verse referred to runs thus : — 

"A servant vi^ith this clause 
Makes drudgerie divine ; 
Who sw^eeps a room as for Thy laws 
Makes that and th' action fine." 

Page 88, note i. Nathan Peabody Ames, the founder of 
the Works where Lowell was for a time an apprentice, was 
a remarkable man. He was bom in Chelmsford, Mass., in 
1803, and supplemented his small opportunities by his me- 
chanical genius and energy. In 1829 he had become a re- 
markable sword-maker. In 1834 he established the Ames 
Manufacturing Company's works at Cabotville or Chicopee. 
In 1836 he added bells and cannon to their products, and 
later cast statues, notably the Washington in Union Square, 
New York, and the Franklin in School Street, Boston, and 
Ball's equestrian statue of Washington in the Public Garden. 

Uriah Boyden, of Foxboro', beginning Hfe as a blacksmith, 
became an inventor and man of science. The turbine wheel 
contrived by him used ninety-five per cent, of the water-power. 

Page 8g, note i. Richard Greenough of New York, the 
sculptor and architect. 

'* Young Stillman " was the artist and writer, William James 
Stillman, later the friend of Greece and Crete. His interesting 
autobiography tells of his friendship with James Russell Lowell, 
Ruskin, Agassiz, and other remarkable men. Emerson, in his 
poem '<The Adirondacs," celebrates his powers as a woodsman. 



386 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Page go, ?iote i. From Goethe's *♦ Wilhelm Meister.'* 

Page gi, note I. Mrs. Lowell had evidently been writing 
about the new books which she had been reading, Mrs. Jame- 
son for one. Henry James (the father of Dr. William James 
and Henry James the novelist) had just published a religious 
and philosophical work. Substance and Shadow, and Mr. Em- 
erson his Conduct of Life. 

Page g2, note i. The allusions are, first, to an oft-quoted 
old English epitaph, and, second, to Matthew Arnold's poem. 

Page Pj>, note i. Higginson was in the employ of Mr. 
Samuel Austin, whose name is in Oriental disguise in the let- 
ter. 

Page gj, note 2. Lowell had now found a place in the 
rolling mills of the Trenton Iron Company in New Jersey, 
the heads of the firm being the son and son-in-law of Peter 
Cooper of New York (founder of the Cooper Institute), Ed- 
ward Cooper and Abram Stevens Hewitt. 

Page 100, note i. Matthew Arnold's poem, "Balder 
Dead." 

Page 100, note 2. The listlessness shown in the last letter 
proved to be the initial symptom of trouble with the lungs, 
then seldom cured. Some hemorrhages occurred. Mr. John 
M. Forbes, one of Boston's best citizens, and at this time a 
merchant engaged in the China trade, knew Lowell's family, 
and, hearing that he was ill, called on him. He found himself 
strangely drawn to this youth, and wished to save him. When 
he had rallied a little, he gave him light work in his counting- 
room. Mr. Forbes was going on a trip to New Orleans and 
the West Indies, and insisted on his young friend's accom- 
panying him, and to make it easier for him to accept, asked 
him to look after and teach his boy, then nine years old, whom 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 387 

he had taken along with him on the trip. It was probably 
one of those ruses which Mr. Forbes resorted to to preserve the 
self-respect of any friend whom he wished to help. It accom- 
plished its object in giving a check and upward turn at a crit- 
ical time to dangerous' disease, but it was the beginning of a 
strong and lasting friendship. Mr. Forbes loved youth and 
spirit, but with Lowell he was charmed, and he recognized 
at once the fine quality of his mind, his high standards and 
energy in work. Lowell, on his side, sav^ the great working 
power, the wisdom and humanity tempered with humour, and 
always a romantic and chivalrous side, in his older friend. Un- 
til Lowell's death, the friendship grew, and in their work for 
the same great ends the difference of age was lost sight of. 
The large way of looking at life and activity which character- 
ized Mr. Forbes was a bond between them. He never al- 
lowed mere business to swamp his head or heart. A partner 
in his firm in China said of him : — 

*♦ Mr. Forbes never seemed to me a man of acquisitiveness, 
but very distinctly one of constructiveness. His wealth was 
only an incident. I have seen many occasions when much 
more money might have been made by him in some business 
transaction, but for this dominant passion for building up things. 
The good also which he anticipated for workmen and settlers 
through opening up the country always weighed much with 
him." This last, of his railroad enterprises. 

Page 104, note l. It appears from this letter and that of 
Sept. 28, 1856, that Mr. Forbes had offered to recommend 
Lowell to his friends in the great house of Russell & Co. in 
Canton. 

Page 118, note l. On the passage of the bill organizing 
the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, but repealing the Mis- 



388 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

souri Compromise, which would have confined slavery to a 
region south of them, societies had been formed in Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut to assist Northern emigration to that 
fertile region, that their influence might hold it for freedom. 
The Northwest also poured in settlers, but Missourians too 
came in, bringing their slaves. A fierce struggle arose, and at 
the elections hordes of armed men from Missouri crossed the 
border to vote illegally for slavery and intimidate the Free State 
men. Franklin Pierce, then President, used the power and 
influence of the administration to fiirther the pro-slavery cause. 
The Emigrant Aid Society of Massachusetts furnished Sharp's 
rifles to the Northern settlers to defend their homes and rights. 

Page 124, note i. One may here recall the belief held by 
many, — and to some extent supported by other statues and 
figures on coins, — that the noble Venus of Milo (Melos) was 
never meant for Aphrodite, but a haughty victory announcing, 
from a tablet she held, the heroes' names. 

Page 12^, note i. Seed-grain, a book made up of high 
thoughts from ancient and modern writers, by Mrs. Lowell, 
then just published. 

Page IJI, note i. Mrs. Patrick Tracy Jackson, with loving 
generosity, had gladly made possible the European journey 
and prolonged stay which saved her grandson's life from the 
advance of the incipient consumption. 

Page 131, note 2. Dr. James Jackson, Mrs. Lowell's 
uncle, a man of virtue, great sagacity, and sweetness, had 
long been the leading physician of Boston. Besides his strictly 
scientific publications on medical subjects, he wrote a little 
book, well worth reading to-day, called Letters to a Young 
Physician. Dr. Jackson's life has been well written recently 
by his grandson. Dr. James Jackson Putnam. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 389 

Page Ij6, note i. Frederick Law Olmsted's Journey in 
the Seaboard Slave States, giving account of the social con- 
ditions and the bitterness on the slavery question there pre- 
vailing, had just attracted attention in the North. His 
Texas Journey followed in 1857. 

Page IJ7, note i. Mr. Henry L. Higginson has given me 
these pleasant recollections of the other two friends of the 
three who crossed the Alps so happily together when they 
were passing from youth to manhood. 

*♦ It was about mind and spirit and the meaning of life 
that I used to hear Charley discussing with Stephen Perkins. 
Neither of them took anything for granted, as it were, in such 
conversations, which I suppose is the only true attitude. 

"They both of them had an immense belief in the natural 
affections, such as love of one's family, maternity, and the like, 
but this far-away, lofty mood was a thing that Charley en- 
joyed and indulged in at times, and it is all the more strange 
because of his great capacity for active, practical life, and his 
enjoyment of it. He was, at one time, crazy about self-de- 
velopment, and, as you can see by his letters, he threw that 
over, by and by, for the higher wish to do his duty to his 
fellow creatures in the world. 

"This love of practical hfe, dealing with daily affairs, Ste- 
phen Perkins didn't enjoy, but he did enjoy the intellectual life 
enormously. It was a wonderful thing to see him — very 
handsome and tall, with a complexion and hair that any woman 
would envy, dressed with care — acting as second lieutenant 
in the Second Infantry [M. V. M.] and directing the men 
in sweeping the company street, cleaning the kitchens, and 
making the camp tidy. It was really a pitiful sight, for he be- 
longed where his brain could be used, and not where common 



390 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

hands were needed. He was always very particular in the 
care of his own person, just as Charley was — they could n't 
bear to have dirty hands for half an hour. 

"They both really loved their friends very much. They 
did n't mind spanking them, or vexing them, and their tongues 
would wag very freely — but they loved their friends dearly. 
Irish in part they both were; Stephen from the Sullivan family, 
and Charley from the Tracy family. Another point about 
Charley was his immense love for the young, — young ani- 
mals, young people, — and he would have been very glad to 
have a large family. 

" I repeat that it was a wicked and a very dull thing for the 
high officers of the Government to let Charley lead either a 
regiment or a brigade. The lightning processes of his mind 
and his eye would have directed ten thousand cavalry (which 
is as much trouble as one hundred thousand infantry) just as 
well as they would have directed a regiment, and his orders 
would have been obeyed. The higher up he went, the better 
he did." 

Page 142, note i. His younger brother, then a Senior at 
Harvard College. 

Page 147, note i. This was the panic of 1857, of which 
Mr. John M. Forbes said that it was more extensive than 
that of 1837 and equally sharp while it lasted. He wrote to 
a friend : — 

"We are in such a crisis here as only those who went 
through 1837 can conceive of. J. K. Mills & Co. and many 
stronger houses have gone, and many other larger ones in Milk 
Street only exist by sufferance, and many large manufactur- 
ing companies are in the same straits. New York Central has 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 391 

run down from 87 to 55, Michigan Central from 95 to 45, 
while the weaker concerns are clear out of sight — Erie i o. 
Southern Michigan 10 to 15." 

Early in October, Mr. Forbes was urgently requested to go 
to London to get a loan of two million dollars to save the rail- 
road from bankruptcy. He took the next steamer, and suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the amount from the Barings, but, of 
course, at a very high rate. The Lowell family connection 
had important interests in the factories of Massachusetts. 

P^S^ 150, note I. The Atlantic Monthly had just begun 
its long life under the editorship of his uncle, James Russell 
Lowell. 

P^g^ 158, note I, Of Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis, the 
great pathologist and clinical instructor, his pupil. Dr. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, thus wrote: "He was the object of our 
reverence, I might almost say idolatry. . . . Our physicians 
of the old school have not the slightest idea of the confidence 
and certainty with which such a man as Louis speaks of his 
patient." He speaks of Louis as of the class of "men who 
know no master and teach no doctrine but Nature and her 
laws, pointed out at the bedside for those to own who see 
them, and for the meanest student to doubt, to dispute, if 
they cannot be seen." 

Page 163, note i. William Hathaway Forbes, who, five 
years later, after service in the First Massachusetts Cavalry, 
was commissioned captain in Colonel Lowell's regiment, 
soon became major, and finally lieutenant-colonel. He was 
active and efficient in the service against Mosby, but was cap- 
tured in July, 1864, in a disastrous fight after a gallant resist- 
ance. After several months of captivity in the South, escape 
and recapture, he was released on parole, and exchanged just 



392 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

in time to rejoin his regiment, in the last campaign ending at 
Appomattox Court House. A friend wrote of him : ♦* Before 
he left camp at Readville he had already distinguished himself 
by his ability to deal with men, and afterward, in the field 
and in prison, his courage, his fortitude, and his solicitude 
for others won the regard and respect of officers and soldiers. 
Colonel Lowell not only held him as a friend, but regarded 
him as one of his best officers." 

After the war. Colonel Forbes led a busy and active life, 
useful, helpful, and loved, until 1897, when he died of con- 
sumption, the seeds of which, though long in his system, seem 
to have been kept dormant by his healthy manner of Ufe. 

An early friend and neighbour, the late Professor James 
Bradley Thayer of the Harvard Law School, paid the following 
loving tribute to William Forbes' s memory: — 

** He was a boy at school when I first saw him — ten 
years old ; a beautifiil yellow-haired little fellow, alert, straight, 
fair-faced, courageous, frank, full of Ufe, an image prophetic 
of all that he was to become in after days. As he grew older 
I had frequent occasion to observe, for a year or two, that he 
was not uniformly addicted to his books, nor ever lacking in a 
healthy boyish love of mischief These qualities got him into 
trouble in college, where in carrying out certain bold pranks 
he held a leader's place and, in presently coming to grief, 
suffered a leader's fate. These matters in no degree touched 
his honour or essential worth, but they lost him his degree. 
Later he won it back at a time when the college itself was hon- 
oured in bestowing it. Manly, vigorous, and of abounding en- 
ergy, he was yet wholly free from the vulgar vices and dissipa- 
tions which often beset strong natures in their youth ; he was 
indeed 'largely possessed,' as a friend said of him at that time. 



NOTES TO IHL LL 1 1 £RS 393 

* of those graces and attractions which are the flower and crown 
of yoath.' And to, when soon the war came, it happened, 
naturally enough, before the year was out, that he had entered 
the army among those * wisest scholars * whom Lowell [in the 
Commemoration Oi/e] celebrated a little later on. . . . How 
bravely he went through the great ordeal, how honourably 
and with what endurance in his captivity, has been told by 
others. 

" When the war was over, he came home to take a brave 
man's part in helping to settle the policy of the country under 
its new conditions. Up to the end of his life, he was always 
to be counted on among those who struggled to conform the 
conduct of public affairs to the highest sundards ; for he had 
learned at home, at his father's knee, that 

« Life may be given in many ways. 

And loyalty to truth be sealed 

As bravely in the closet as the field.' 

"For the last twenty years and more he has been a leader 
of those who built up the great and complex industry of the 
telephone. [He was President of the American Bell Tele- 
phone Company during the years of its establishment and in- 
troduction.] Here, as elsewhere, he has shown the qualities 
of a sagacious, prudent, and high-minded man of affairs. 

"During the year that ended the war, he married the 
younger daughter of R. W, Emerson. For Mr. Emerson 
himself he cherished always a great and afl^ectionate appre- 
ciation, which was fully reciprocated. His sagacity in business 
enabled him to render Mr. Emerson very important service. 

** His domestic life was a lovely spectacle, adorned as it was, 
not only with all that can make existence outwardly comfort- 



394 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

able, but with much else most precious that money cannot 
buy, and especially with his own manly accomplishments and 
modest graces of character. After all else, he had inherited a 
certain noble style of personal beauty and a simple dignity of 
bearing, that were the true index of his own soul." 

Page 112, note i. The passage alluded to runs as follows: — 

Quest' e colei, ch'e tanto posto in croce 
Pur da color, che le dovrian da lode 
Dandole biasmo a torto e mala voce. 

Ma ella s'e beata, e cio non ode : 
Con I'altre prime creature lieta 
Volve sua spera, e beata si gode. 

Inferno, Canto VII, 91-96. 

Dr. John Carlyle thus renders the whole instruction which 
Virgil gives to Dante concerning Fortune (the English of the 
verses above quoted is italicized) : — 

♦* * Master,' I [Dante] said to him, * now tell me also: 
this Fortune of which thou hintest to me ; what is she, that 
has all the good things of the world thus within her clutches ? ' 
And he to me : * O foolish creatures, how great is this igno- 
rance that falls upon ye ! Now I wish thee to receive my 
judgment of her. He, whose wisdom is transcendent over all, 
made the heavens and gave them guides ; so that every part 
may shine to every part equally distributing the light. In like 
manner for w^orldly splendours He ordained a general minister 
and guide, to change betimes the vain possessions from people 
to people, and from one kindred to another beyond the hin- 
drance of human wisdom. Hence one people commands, 
another languishes, obeying her sentence which is hidden, like 
a serpent in the grass. Your knowledge cannot withstand her. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 395 

She provides, judges, and maintains her kingdom as the other 
gods do theirs. Her permutations have no truce. Necessity 
makes her to be swift, so oft come things requiring change. 

** * This is she who is so much reviled, even by those who ought 
to praise her — blaming her wrongfully and with evil words. 
But she is in bliss and hears it not. With the other primal 
creatures joyful, she wheels her sphere and tastes her blessed- 
ness.' " 

Page 177, note i. The invitation was accepted by Mr. 
Perkins, and, initiated into work and inspired by Lowell's 
spirit, he became, not long after Lowell's departure, super- 
intendent of the road, then reaching no farther than Ottumwa, 
seventy-five miles. When business enterprise revived, after 
the coming of peace, the road soon justified its name by reach- 
ing to the Missouri at Council Bluffs. Now the great Chi- 
cago, Burlington and Quincy system spreads wide in the newer 
States on the plains and through the mountains, and reaches 
the Pacific. Of this great system Mr. Perkins became the 
president. 

Page 178, note i. I venture to quote here some passages 
from a letter written by Mr. Perkins, in answer to certain 
incjuiries of mine : — 

Burlington, Iowa, Aug. 20, 1906. 
Your letter takes me back just forty-seven years, to the 
time when I arrived here, in August, 1859, ^° S° ^° work 
as Charles Lowell's clerk, at thirty dollars a month. Lowell 
was then Assistant Treasurer of the Burlington & Missouri 
River Railroad Company, the Treasurer being at the head- 
quarters in Boston. . . . Without looking it up, I think his 
salary was eight hundred dollars a year ! . . . John G. Read 



396 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

was Vice-President and Superintendent. . . . In 1 86 1, or 
possibly early in 1862, he entered the Regular Army, and was 
killed at the second battle of Bull Run. . . . 

Lowell was not subordinate to Read, but reported inde- 
pendently to the Boston headquarters. 

There was in the service of the Company, at that time, a 
young Bohemian named Leo Carper, who had the title and 
the duties of General Freight and Ticket Agent, under Read. 
. . . He was a man of character and intelligence, and he and 
Lowell had set up housekeeping together in a small, white brick 
house, with an acre of land around it, in the western part of 
this town, where they took me in as a boarder at twenty dollars 
a month. The housekeeper and cook was Mrs. Patrick Kelley. 
. . . When I came here I was not quite nineteen years old, 
while Lowell was twenty-four. We lived together a little 
over a year. ... I looked at Lowell with a boy's eyes. 

Our life was uneventful, and consisted in getting up early 
and going to bed early, working hard all day, sometimes 
even all day Sunday, and often at night, with a sperm-oU 
lamp and candles. When not at work on Sunday, we walked, 
and during the last eight or ten months of his life here, Lowell 
had a Httle sorrel mare, which he rode more or less. For 
reading we had the Daily Hawk- Eye, and anti-slavery publica- 
tions which were freely circulated during the last half of 
Buchanan's administration, and Lowell occupied himself at 
times with the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant, or the then 
recently published works of Charles Darwin and Henry 
Thomas Buckle, but neither his friend Carper nor I could 
digest such highly seasoned food. We had little social life, 
caUing on a few families now and then, but, as a rule, we 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 397 

stayed at home in the evening, either reading or casting trial 
balances. We kept a cow, and when she had a calf, in the 
summer of 1 860, we each lifted it daily, intending to keep on 
doing so until it grew up, but the march of events prevented. 
Once, and once only, we gave a dinner party, and it was for 
Mr. Ashburner, an English gentleman, who, being a stock- 
holder, came with letters from Mr. Forbes. Lowell and Mrs. 
Kelley arranged the dinner at our house, and Read supplied 
the wines, consisting of a few botdes of champagne and a 
bottle of absinthe ! 

Besides being Assistant Treasurer, Lowell had charge of 
the land grant of about three hundred thousand acres, which 
had been given by the General Government, in 1856, to aid 
in the construction of the road across the State. As the road 
then terminated at Ottumwa on the Des Moines River, and the 
lands granted were west of there, they were then unsaleable, 
and there was not much to be done about them. He and 
Read were good friends, and Read consulted him freely 
about all the Company's affairs, so that his clearness and force 
was felt everywhere in the service. It was such a little 
railroad that we were all in close touch with everything 
about it. 

Lowell was liked by all who came in contact with him, 
both in and out of the railroad service, from the Irish section- 
man who got seventy-five cents a day to our United States 
Senators, one of whom lived here, James W. Grimes, while 
the other, James Harlan, hved only a few miles away at 
Mount Pleasant. I was too young to know it then, but I have 
felt since that Lowell possessed what John Locke calls the 
greatest part of true knowledge, ** a distinct perception of 
things in themselves distinct." He certainly had a very clear. 



398 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

keen and definite intellect. He told me once that he con- 
sidered judgment the great and rarest quality of the human 
mind. My impression is that he had it. 

Sincerely yours, 

C. E. Perkins. 

Page iS^, note I. Shortly after Lowell's death, Mr. John 
M. Forbes sent to Mr. Ashburner the letter on the subject of 
this oiFer, accompanied by the following: — 

Milton, December 12, 1864. 
My dear Mr. Ashburner, — Making up my old files I 
came upon a most characteristic letter from Lowell, and my 
wife wishes you to have a copy of it which she has made. 
With his taste, refinement, consciousness of intellectual power, 
and his love of the beautiful, I can hardly conceive of any 
greater temptation, since the Lord was taken into a high 
place, than that which you set before Lowell (I don't mean 
to extend the comparison on your side), situated as he was 
in that dull place amid rough men and away from all that 
was tasteful and pleasant. His letter shows how the tempta- 
tion came to him and how it was resisted. It took more solid 
character, more self-sacrifice than many a desperate charge — 
and he made some before which that of Balaclava will not, 
or should not, stand in more heroic colours. If you have no 
objection (suppressing your name if you wish it), I think this 
letter should be published when his life is written. He had 
a taste for luxury, a delicate frame, his family looking to him 
for help, yet how loyally and bravely he rejects wealth and 
position, offered him, too, in such a flattering way. One of 
the strange things has been how he magnetized you and me at 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 399 

first sight. We are both practical, unsentimental, and perhaps 
hard, at least externally ; yet he captivated me, just as he did 
you, and I came home and told my wife I had fallen in 
love ; and from that day I never saw anything too good or 
too high for him, more knowledge confirming first impressions 
— but he is gone and leaves us only memory of a Genius 
departed. . . . 

Page 187, note i. Mr. George Putnam, a lawyer in Bos- 
ton, Lowell's classmate, in the following month married his 
sister Harriet. 

Page igiy note i. Mr. Denison was the treasurer, in Bos- 
ton, of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company. 

Page ig2, note i. The following passage I borrow from 
Professor Peirce's Life of Lowell in the Harvard Memorial 
Biographies : — 

" In November, we find him at Mount Savage in a position 
of great responsibility at the head of a small city of workmen; 
and once again his chosen work seemed to lie before him. 
But now going into a Border State at the moment of the 
great election of 1 860, and remaining there during the follow- 
ing five months, Lowell could not fail to find himself brought 
into more positive relations than ever before to political affairs, 
and his long cherished plans of professional activity thrown 
into abeyance by the urgent anxieties and excitements of that 
disturbed winter. He had for years been a decided enemy to 
slavery and to the system by which it was supported. . . . 
But his opinions, though radical, were not generally violent, 
and even in some of his last letters it is evident that his mind 
dwelt habitually above the range of the ordinary thought of 
any political party. 



400 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

" In December he visited New Orleans on business con- 
nected with the mill, and he wrote to his mother on his return: 

" ' Mt. Savage, December 28, i860. 
" ' 1 suppose you fancied me burned, or at least barrelled ; 

but, after all, I suppose I ran less risk than friend 

exposed himself to in panic-stricken Boston. ... In New 
Orleans a Union lover dare not speak under his breath . . . 
though I believe the vote of New Orleans city will show a 
majority for Union. I was present, at that great historical act, 
the unfurling of the ** Pelican Flag" when news was received 
of South Carolina's secession! It was an instructive spectacle. 
I wonder whether the signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence looked as silly as those fellows.' " 

Page ip4, note i. "The war," wrote Mr. Forbes, in 
his notes, " virtually began for me with what is called the 
'Peace Congress* of February, 1861. In January, Virginia 
asked the other States to send delegates to a congress for the 
purpose of devising means to avert the civil war then threat- 
ening. This was pretty generally responded to at the North, 
and resulted in the meeting of what was called the Peace 
Congress at Washington, in the early part of February, 1861. 
It was unauthorized by law and entirely informal, and simply 
a conference of men of the different States. Each State was 
represented by as many delegates as it had members of Con- 
gress, our Massachusetts contingent being thirteen (I think), 
all nominated by Governor Andrew under authority from the 
legislature. Of my colleagues I recall the names of George S. 
Boutwell, J. Z. Goodrich, F. N. Crowninshield, T. P. Chan- 
dler, and B. F. Waters of Marblehead, as having been the 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 401 

most active. We started nearly all together, about February 
10, with the political horizon everywhere darkly lowering. 
My wife and daughter accompanied me. ... I had secured 
an asylum for them with Baron Stoeckel, the Russian ambas- 
sador, to be availed of in case the rebels pushed into Washing- 
ton, an event which seemed as probable as it really was easy 
of accomplishment, had the rebels been half as smart as we 
thought them. . . . 

<<We soon plunged into our work, our [the Massachusetts 
delegation's] advent having very much the effect of a bomb- 
shell explosion. Before our arrival, the talk had been chiefly 
of compromise, and some progress seemed to have been made 
in preparing the way for a surrender by the North, on the 
basis of the Crittenden Resolutions, so called from Senator 
Crittenden, who introduced them into the Senate. They 
practically surrendered the ground which the North and West 
had taken against the extension of Slavery, and gave up the 
advanced position for Freedom which had been gained after 
long years of conflict, and which was represented by the 
election of Lincoln. . . . We who went to see what chance 
there was of any real peace, soon found that the Southerners 
in the convention were ready to receive any concessions from us 
*in the hope that it might do some good,' but to commit 
themselves to nothing. 

"When we asked the Border States, 'Suppose the North 
concedes what you ask, will you join them in forcing the South 
to obey the laws ? ' * No,' was the reply, * but we should hope 
that such concessions would lead to a settlement, and we will 
do all we peaceably can to bring this about.' . . . Our only 
policy then was to stand firm, and, as the Fourth of March 
was approaching, when the weak old Buchanan and his Cabi- 



402 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

net would go out, to make all the time we could in the Peace 
Convention and avert, as long as possible, the onslaught of 
the better prepared South, which was plainly impending. . . . 
So the Massachusetts delegates introduced a resolution calling 
upon the representatives of the Border States, who had asked 
us to meet them, for * a statement of the grievances which we 
were asked to redress.' 

** This led to long debates, and some of us who had not 
the gift of speaking, and could read the reports of the conven- 
tion in print, turned our thoughts naturally to some other modes 
of saving the Union." (John Murray Forbes, Letters and 
Recollections, edited by his daughter, Sarah Forbes Hughes. 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899.) 

Mr. Forbes wrote a draft for a report of the Peace Com- 
mission to Governor Andrew, in which he said : " We have 
no belief that any absolute settlement was practicable, short of 
an entire subversion of the constitutional rights of the majority 
of the people of the United States. ' ' 

Page IQS, note I. Judah P. Benjamin, a Jew, came to 
North Carolina in early youth, and became a prominent law- 
yer and politician in New Orleans. He was a leading seces- 
sionist and was Secretary of War, and, later, of State, to the 
Confederacy. After the war, he was a noted practitioner of 
law in England. He died in Paris. 

Page 202 y note i. Count Adam Gurowski, a Polish patriot, 
exiled for his part in revolutionary politics at home, came to 
America and became a student and man of letters. 

Page 206, note i. Yet, in these weeks, Lowell was by no 
means spending all his time on the "personal matter" of 
getting permission to give his best powers and life to his Coun- 
try in the army. Mr. Forbes had purchased two steamers for 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 403 

the transportation of Massachusetts troops and stores, and Low- 
ell was arranging for a supply of coal for one of these, the 
** Cambridge;' ' also about unloading the supplies for the troops, 
and perhaps selling her to the government. 

Page 206, note 2. Oakfield, a story of army life in India, 
by an officer, the brother of Matthew Arnold, which seems to 
have created a stir in England at the time. 

Page 208, note i. The wise precaution of guarding the 
Massachusetts Arsenal at Cambridge from traitorous injury or 
theft had been taken, and a volunteer company largely com- 
posed of Harvard students and graduates was stationed there. 

Page 212, note i. Miss Anna Lowell, his younger sister, 
became an army nurse in the hospitals at Washington, and 
devoted herself to this service throughout the war. 

Page 212, note 2. As for our good and great War-Gov- 
ernor, the doubts concerning him when elected, his early un- 
popularity, and his triumphant record, I quote the words of that 
admirable citizen, the late Colonel Henry Lee of his staff: — 

*' Meeting the Governor just after his election, at a political 
levee, I refrained from joining in the congratulations generally 
expressed because I was afraid he might be one-sided and in- 
discreet, deficient in common sense and practical ability. . . . 
I unexpectedly received a summons to a position upon his 
staff. . . . Work began at once. But it is needless to repeat 
the hundred- times-told tale of Governor Andrew's military 
preparations, the glory whereof has since been comfortably 
adopted by Massachusetts as her own — by right of eminent 
domain, perhaps — whereas in fact nearly all Massachusetts 
derided and abused him at the time, and the glory was really 
as much his individual property as his coat and hat. 



404 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

"The war had begun, and Massachusetts, that denounced 
State which was to have been left out in the cold, had de- 
spatched within one week five Regiments of Infantry, one 
Battalion of Riflemen, and one Battery of Artillery, armed, 
clothed, and equipped. Behind every great movement stands 
the man, and that man behind this movement was the ridi- 
culed, despised fanatic, John A. Andrew. As the least back- 
wardness on the part of Massachusetts, whose sons had done 
more than all others to promote the * irrepressible conflict,' 
would have endangered the Union and exposed us to the 
plottings and concessions of the Conservatives and ' Copper- 
heads,' so her prompt response, in consequence of the courage 
and foresight of her Governor, strengthened the timid, rebuked 
the disaiFected, cemented the Union, fused the whole country 
into one glow of patriotism. 

** Saint Paul was not more suddenly or more thoroughly con- 
verted than were many of those who had, up to that week, been 
loudest in their lamentations, or denunciations of the Governor. 
Rich men poured in their gifts. . . . Conservatives and Demo- 
crats rushed to pay their respects and to applaud the very acts 
which they had so deplored and ridiculed. ' ' ( Memoir of Henry 
Lee, by John T. Morse, Jr. Boston: Little & Brown, 1905.) 

Page 216, note i. One soldier, certainly, of those enlisted 
by Lowell, on the very day he wrote this letter, proved a credit 
to his Country's service in all the grades from lowest to highest. 
The following letter was received by me, in answer to one of 
inquiry, from Lieutenant- General ChaiFee, lately retired: — 

Los Angeles, California, August 26, 1906. 
Dear Mr. Emerson, — I have your letter, dated the 1 7th 
instant. While I was not the first, I was one of the first dozen 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 405 

enlisted by General Lowell at Warren, Ohio, in the summer 
of 1 861 ; my hand being held up on the 22d of July. 

On that day, I was en route from my home to Columbus, 
Ohio, to enlist in the 23d Ohio Volunteers. Walking along 
Main Street, in Warren, I observed a recruiting-poster on the 
wall of a building, with a picture of a mounted soldier. I 
stopped for a moment to take in the situation and read, <' Re- 
cruits wanted for the United States Army." Standing in a 
near-by door was a fine looking man in uniform, and he said 
to me, *' Young man, don't you wish to enlist? " I told him 
of my intention to join the 23d Ohio. He at once set forth 
the advantages of the cavalry service and the Regular Army in 
such fascinating terms that within fifteen minutes I determined 
to accept his opinion of what was best for me to do. 

I enlisted in his troop — K, Sixth Cavalry — and served as 
an enlisted man in the troop until May 12, 1863, on which 
date I received my commission as second Heutenant in the 
Sixth Cavalry, I left the regiment on promotion to major, 
July, 1888. 

At date of my appointment as heutenant, Captain Lowell 
was on detached service or on leave of absence, and I believe 
he never thereafter served with the Sixth Cavalry, except as 
its brigade commander in the Shenandoah Valley, he being 
at the time Colonel of the Second Massachusetts. 

I knew General Lowell only as an enlisted soldier may 
know his captain in the regular service. He was my instruc- 
tor, I his obedient soldier. There were, of course, no discus- 
sions of campaigns or superior officers in my hearing, — so 
observations of him when captain of my troop in camp and 
battle, and occasionally later, when in command of the Reserve 
Brigade, is all I know of him of a personal nature. . . . 



4o6 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

None of them [the technically educated line-officers of the 
regiment] in my opinion equalled his activity and great enthu- 
siasm as an officer of cavalry. 

For self-control, personal courage, daring exposure to wounds 
or death in battle, I did not see his equal during the war. For 
bravery he is yet, after forty years of experience in the Army, 
my idol — the brave officer. As he was viewed from the ranks ^ 
he seemed unconscious that he possessed bravery in larger 
degree than usual with men. He was not one to do anything 
for mere show. . . . During the Valley Campaign an officer 
suggested more caution, less unnecessary exposure to the fire 
of the enemy; whereupon General Lowell remarked that the 
bullet had not been moulded that would harm him. In less than 
a month he was struck twice — both the same day — the last 
his fatal hurt. . . . 

Captain Lowell was always kind to his men, duly consid- 
erate of all faults and failures on their part; he was, neverthe- 
less, strict in his discipline. 

I regret not being able to assist you materially in the special 
direction you mention, — his actions, words, etc., that marked 
his individuality. 

I simply recollect that he was always ready, always enthu- 
siastic in whatever of duty came to his lot, — splendid officer. 

Very truly, 

Adna R. Chaffee. 

Page 218, note I. Mrs. Lowell was carrying out a plan 
for supplying army work to the wives of soldiers. 

Page 220, note i. Brigadier- General Philip St. George 
Cooke commanded, during the Peninsular Campaign (under 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 407 

General Stoneman, Chief of Cavalry), the Cavalry Reserve, 
consisting of Emory's and Blake's brigades. Major Laurence 
Williams then commanded the Sixth Cavalry. 

Page 221, note i. Major Higginson, in giving the Sol- 
diers' Field, said of James Low^ell; — 

** One of them w^as first scholar in his class — thoughtful, 
kind, affectionate, gentle, full of solicitude about his compan- 
ions and about his duties. He was wounded in a very early 
fight in the war, and after his recovery and a hard campaign 
on the Peninsula, was killed at Glendale. . . . Hear his own 
words: * When the Class meets, in years to come, and honours 
its statesmen and judges, its divines and doctors, let also the 
score who went to fight for their country be remembered, and 
let not those who never returned be forgotten.' If you had 
known James Lowell, you would never have forgotten him." 

I add this account of James Lowell's parting from life, given 
by Professor Francis J. Child in the Harvard Memorial Bio- 
graphies : " When our troops moved on, and orders came for 
all who could to fall in, he insisted on Patten's (his 2d lieu- 
tenant) leaving him. ... 'I have written them all. Tell 
them how it was, Pat.' The officers of his regiment who 
went to bid him farewell tell us that the grasp of his hand was 
warm and firm and his countenance smiling and happy. He 
desired that his father might be told that he was struck while 
dressing the line of his men. Besides this he had no message 
but * Good-bye.' He expressed a wish that his sword might 
not fall into the enemy's hands — a wish that was faithfully 
attended to by Colonel Palfrey,' through whose personal care 
it was preserved and sent home. . . . 

* Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Colonel of the Twentieth Massachusetts 
Infantry, and later brevetted Brigadier-General U. S. V., a good soldier, 



4o8 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

** Two of our surgeons, who had been left with the wounded 
at the farm, were much impressed with his behaviour, and one 
of them told the Rebel officers to talk with him, if they wished 
to know how a Northern officer thought and felt. . . . 

** While the soul of this noble young soldier was passing 
slowly away, his sister, who had for some time been serving as 
volunteer nurse on a hospital steamer, which was lying at 
Harrison's Bar on the James River, only a few miles off, heard 
of his dangerous wound, and tried every expedient to get to 
him, but without success." 

Page 222, note i. General Emory, formerly Lowell's 
colonel, regarded Lowell as the best officer appointed from 
civil life he had ever known. 

Page 223, note I. Colonel Francis C. Barlow, a man of 
extraordinary gifts, who had graduated at Harvard the year after 
Lowell, — like him, first scholar in his class. He enlisted as 
a private, April 19, 1861, was married on the 20th, and sent 
to the seat of war on the 2 1 st. Distinguishing himself on every 
field on which he fought, he rose rapidly in the service, and, 
though badly wounded again and again, returned to the field, 
and was at the close of the war Major-General of Volun- 
teers. Lieutenant- General Miles said of him : " The clear 
and comprehensive intellect that had enabled him to pass his 
rivals in his educational race also enabled him to absorb the 
' books on military affairs, and to acquire a useful knowledge of 
military history. Within a few months he had made himself 
absolute master of military tactics. It was as familiar to him as 
the alphabet or the multiplication table, and equally so were 
the Army Regulations. He not only knew what they required, 

and the author of the volume Anthtam and Fredericksburg, No. V, in 
" Campaigns of the Civil War. " 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 409 

but comprehended the principles and was enabled to comply 
with them, and also to instruct his subordinates." 

More will be said of General Barlow in a later note. 

Page 225 y note i. This was the great battle of the An- 
tietam, at Sharpsburg, Maryland. The friends here mentioned 
were officers of the Twentieth and Second Infantry, two of 
the best regiments that Massachusetts sent to the war. Colonel 
Palfrey of the Twentieth has already been mentioned. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, Jr. (now Justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States), was captain in the same regiment. His 
father, the Doctor, has told the story ('* My Hunt after the 
[wounded] Captain ") in his works. Norwood P. Hallowell 
became colonel of the Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts (coloured) 
regiment. Dr. Edward Revere (a grandson of Paul Revere), a 
noble man and devoted surgeon in the Twentieth, after arduous 
work among the wounded under fire, was shot dead as he rose 
from operating on a hurt soldier. Lieutenant-Colonel Dwight, 
early in the war, wrote, after hearing of a military success else- 
where, ♦* J had rather lose my life to-morrow in a victory than 
save it for fifty years without one. When I speak of myself as 
not there, I mean the Massachusetts Second in whose fortunes 
and hopes I merge my own. ' ' He had been largely instrumen- 
tal in raising that, the first three-years regiment from his State. 
His wish was granted. 

Lieutenant Francis Welch Crowninshield was a youth of 
delicate constitution, whose great spirit carried him through 
the whole period of the war, although he was struck by bul- 
lets at Winchester, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and elsewhere. 
Yet he steadily returned to his regiment, the Second Massa- 
chusetts Infantry, which he encouraged to reenlist. He be- 
came a captain, shared in the actions of the Atlanta Campaign, 



410 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

and, in spite of his frequent injuries, marched through to the 
sea with Sherman. The year after the war ended, his con- 
stitution succumbed to the effects of wounds and exposure, 
and he died in Italy. Of Robert Shaw much has been already, 
and will be, said in this volume. 

William Dwight Sedgwick, of Lenox, Massachusetts, a good 
and strong man, well born, and of excellent attainments, was 
practising law in St. Louis when the war broke out. Eager in 
his patriotism, he at once joined the Second Massachusetts In- 
fantry as a first lieutenant. The next year he was placed on 
the staff of his uncle, the gallant and loved General Sedgwick, 
with the rank of Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. 
While carrying orders at Antietam he was shot in the spine, 
and died in the hospital ten days later. 

The stories of all these officers are told in the Harvard 
Memorial Biographies. 

Page 225, note 2. Lowell said no word of his important 
service, as one of the aides of the general in command, in 
helping to rally General Sedgwick's division, of the Second 
Corps, broken and retreating before the terrible fire. An 
officer who recognized him said, "I shall never forget the 
effect of his appearance. He seemed a part of his horse, and 
instinct with a perfect animal life. At the same time his eyes 
glistened and his face literally shone with the spirit and intelli- 
gence of which he was the embodiment. He was the ideal of 
the preux chevalier. After I was wounded, one of my first 
anxieties was to know what had become of him; for it 
seemed to me that no mounted man could have lived through 
the storm of bullets that swept the wood just after I saw him 
enter it." (See Professor Peirce's Life of Lowell in the Har- 
vard Memorial Biographies. ) 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 411 

Page 226, note i. *' Young Bob," also mentioned in the 
letter from Harrison's Landing, was a vigorous young horse, 
raised by Mr. Forbes at Naushon, and given by him to 
Lowell. 

This is the story of the day from the orderly's point of 
view: "At the battle of Antietam, the Captain was carry- 
ing orders from General McClellan to every Corps Com- 
mander. He went with some orders to General Hooker on 
the right: when we got there, the men were coming back 
in disorder, and the Captain went in and helped rally them, 
and a solid shot struck his scabbard and shivered it to pieces. 
He told me, before he got back to Headquarters, that Berold 
[a handsome, tall sorrel] was giving out, — he could only 
trot, — and he told me to take the saddle and put it on Bob. 
When I took the saddle off Berold, there was two great lumps 
on each side of him as big as a hen's egg. He had been shot. 
I kept the Captain's scabbard a long time, and, when we 
started for Boston, he took the sabre and would not let me 
keep the scabbard, but told me to throw it away. I wanted 
him to keep his overcoat that he got shot full of holes, but 
he said No, and gave it to a coloured man after the battle of 
Antietam." 

Page 226, note 2. Lowell evidently gives the figures as then 
estimated by his General, whose foible was, as Lowell later 
appreciated, the over-estimating of the enemy's strength. As 
a matter of fact, now conceded, Lee had the smaller army. 
General Palfrey, who endeavours judicially to sift the varying 
statements on both sides, calls attention to the fact that, of the 
87,000 troops which General McClellan reports that he had 
at the battle, two corps and the cavalry hardly had any share, 
thus reducing the force to less than 60,000; and adds: **If 



412 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

any allowance be made for the notorious difference between 
morning report, totals, and eiFectives in action, it will appear 
that the Federals engaged cannot have outnumbered the Con- 
federates in more than the proportion of three to two, and 
probably did not outnumber them so much. This is by no 
means large odds when the attacking force has to deal with a 
force occupying a strong defensive position, as the Confederates 
confessedly did, and one where the ground was admirably 
adapted for the safe and secret and rapid transfer of their 
troops from a less pressed to a more pressed portion of their 
line." 

Page 2J0, note i. This was but eight days before General 
McClellan was removed from the command of the Army of 
the Potomac. 

Page 2 JO, note 2. Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, whose name 
has been given to a city where he promoted successful manu- 
facturing interests, was not only a leading citizen of Boston, 
but brave, generous, and active in measures tending to resist 
the encroachments of the slave power before the war, and, 
when the strife began, in eiforts to carry it on to a righteous 
and successful end. He was associated with Mr. Forbes in 
founding the Union Club in Boston, the Loyal Publication 
Society, and especially in the business of recruiting soldiers 
for the Volunteer Regiments of Massachusetts, as wisely and 
economically as possible, at a time when it was exceedingly 
hard to secure men. This difHculty it was which probably 
gave rise to the proposition to raise a battalion instead of a 
regiment. Colonel Lowell's other Boston correspondent must 
have misunderstood the proposition, for it certainly was not 
proposed to raise ** home-guard" cavalry. 

Page 232, note i. Major-General Fitz John Porter, com- 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 413 

manding the Fifth Army Corps, an officer of excellent record 
in the Peninsular Campaign, was accused by General Pope 
of disobedience to his orders before and during the battles near 
Manassas, August 28 and 29, 1862. A court-martial found 
him guilty. After the war, when the excitement had subsided. 
President Hayes convened a board of officers of high charac- 
ter and ability, who were free from personal relations to that 
campaign, Major-General Schofield, Brigadier- General Terry, 
and Colonel Getty. After a careful and patient examination of 
the case, including much new and important evidence which 
could not be procured at the time of the court-martial, this 
board completely exonerated General Porter from the charges 
on which the court-martial had found him guilty. 

Page 2JJ, note i. Relative positions were now reversed, 
as Captain Lowell had been detailed to raise and drill the Sec- 
ond Massachusetts Cavalry, and his mother had been sum- 
moned to Washington, to the bedside of her daughter Anna, 
a nurse in Armory Square Military Hospital, who had fallen 
ill. 

Page 2J4, note i. The New England Loyal Publication 
Society had this origin: — 

Mr. John M. Forbes kept an eye on the newspapers or 
other publications, irrespective of party, for any strong and sen- 
sible paragraph, speech, or article advocating a vigorous prose- 
cution of the war. In the midst of all his important public 
and private works, he had these copied and multiplied and 
sent, at his expense, all over the country, especially to local 
newspapers. When the work became too serious an under- 
taking for one man, he formed the society, which became an 
important and efficient agency, during the last three years of 
the war, for the spreading of sound doctrines in politics and 



414 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

finance. Party and personal issues were excluded. Mr. 
Charles Eliot Norton took charge of the work as editor, and 
James B. Thayer, Esq., was the secretary. The Executive 
Committee were J. M. Forbes, President; William Endicott, 
Treasurer; C. E. Norton, J. B. Thayer, Edward Atkinson, 
Martin Brimmer, Rev. E. E. Hale, Henry B. Rogers, Pro- 
fessor W. B. Rogers, Samuel G. Ward. 

Page 2j^, note i. Readville, near Boston, was then the 
principal camp of assembly and instruction, and the Second 
Massachusetts Cavalry and the Fifty-Fourth Infantry were 
camped side by side. The latter was the first coloured regi- 
ment that went to the war from New England. It was re- 
garded as a dangerous and doubtfial experiment, — by some 
persons as a wicked one. Part of the men were obtained in 
Massachusetts, but a great number of them from Ohio, Ken- 
tucky, and Tennessee, by the energy and patriotism of Major 
George L. Stearns. Braving much hostile public opinion 
and ridicule, the field officers of the regiment, and many of 
the line, left white regiments to make the Fifty-Fourth a 
success. 

The Colonel, Robert Gould Shaw, had served with credit 
in the Second Massachusetts Infantry; the Lieutenant- Colonel, 
Norwood Penrose Hallowell, a gallant fighter of Quaker 
stock, had already served in the same regiment, and later be- 
came Colonel of the Fifty-Fifth, while his brother Edward 
succeeded him as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifty-Fourth. 

Major Higginson in his address, at the dedication of the 
Soldiers' Field, said of Robert Shaw: — 

** I first saw him one evening in our first camp at Brook 
Farm — a beautiful, sunny-haired, blue-eyed boy, gay and 
droll and winning in his ways. In those early days of camp 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 415 

life, we fellows were a bit homesick, and longed for the com- 
pany of girls . . . and I fell in love with this boy, and have 
not fallen out yet. He was of a very simple and manly 
nature — steadfast and aifectionate, human to the last degree, 
without much ambition, except to do his plain duty. You 
should have seen Robert Shaw as he, with his chosen officers, 
led away from Boston his black men of the Fifty-Fom-th 
Massachusetts amid the cheers of his townsmen. Presently he 
took them up to the assault of Fort Wagner, and was buried 
with them there in the trench." 

Page 2J5, note 2. Of the summer of 1862, Mr. Forbes 
wrote in his notes : — 

"In that summer I had the satisfaction of getting up the 
Committee of a Hundred for promoting the use of blacks as 
soldiers, and acted as chairman of it. 

*< We raised, I think, about ^100,000 by subscription 
among the most conservative Republicans. ... I was able 
to do something towards the choice of the right officers, as 
well as in raising the men." 

Page 2j8, note i. Major William H. Forbes commanded 
a Massachusetts battalion. Major D. W. C. Thompson the 
California Battalion, which had only landed in New York on 
April 14 and had, consequently, been but a month in camp 
at Readville. This was of less importance, as the Californians 
were all good riders, and had probably had some elementary 
instruction in miUtary duties and drill before sailing. The 
First Battalion, under Major Caspar Crowninshield, already 
serving in the Peninsula, contained the "California Hun- 
dred," under Captain J. Sewall Reed, and several Massachu- 
setts companies. These components of the regiment became 
thoroughly welded by the active service in the Valley, but at 



4i6 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

first the state line was sharply drawn by the soldiers. Lieu- 
tenant S. W. Backus, in his reminiscences of the regiment, 
wrote: — 

*' While we were comparatively recruits, marching past 
other troops, whenever the question was asked, * What regi- 
ment is that ? ' the answer would come from one part of the 
line * California Hundred,' from another ♦ California Battal- 
ion,' and from still another, • Second Massachusetts Cavalry.' 
No wonder the questioners were often puzzled to know who 
we really were. We soon, however, overcame this folly, and 
to say we belonged to the Second Massachusetts Cavalry was 
honour enough in our minds." But the Lieutenant adds, with 
amusing recurrence to the first thought: — 

" We, however, indulged ourselves in the thought that the 
Californians really did constitute the regiment, and with this 
idea we felt satisfied that we would not completely lose our 
identity." 

Page 2JQ, note i. Captain Henry S. Russell, of the Sec- 
ond Massachusetts Infantry, had been detailed to help in pre- 
paring for the field the Second Cavalry, of which he was to 
be second in command. He had been left behind to secure 
and forward recruits to the regiment. I copy the following 
from Mr. John M. Forbes's Reminiscences: "Harry had 
distinguished himself in the Second Infantry, under Gordon, 
as a good soldier, reaching the rank of captain, and then had 
suffered himself to be captured at the battle of Cedar Moun- 
tain, under Banks, where he stood by his mortally wounded 
friend James Savage, and passed some months in prison. . . . 
He left the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, where he was 
lieutenant-colonel, to recruit the Fifth (coloured) Cavalry, 
as colonel. This regiment got its first impetus from a tele- 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 417 

gram which I received one day, when on a visit to Washing- 
ton, from Governor Andrew, directing me to see Secretary 
Stanton, and apply for leave to recruit a regiment of coloured 
cavalry. It was a time when recruiting was beginning to 
flag, and, taking the message in my pocket, I syjon got access 
to the Secretary, with whom I was always on good terms, 
and within five minutes of showing the message leave was 
given to go ahead ; and Harry gave up his easier place of 
lieutenant-colonel in a splendid white regiment to build up 
the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry (coloured), which, how- 
ever, was destined to do most of its work unmounted." 
Colonel Russell was wounded, but survived the war. A man 
of courage and decision, and with a natural dignity and military 
habit in dealing with men, he was singularly kind and modest. 
He served the city of Boston to much purpose and with hon- 
ourable fidelity, first as Commissioner of Police, and later of 
the Fire Department, for many years. 

Page 2jg, note 2. The bounteous hospitality extended to 
all regiments and soldiers passing through this city, by the 
Philadelphia Volunteer Relief Association during the war, is 
held in grateful remembrance. 

Page 240, note i. Brigadier- General Silas Casey, U. S. V., 
a veteran of the Seminole and Mexican wars and service in 
the Puget Sound District, was then assisting in organizing the 
troops in and around Washington. In the following year he 
distinguished himself as a division commander at Fair Oaks. 
He was the author of Infantry Tactics adopted by the Gov- 
ernment in 1862. 

The summons sent, nine days later, by General Casey to 
Colonel Lowell, preparing him to take the field, showed that 
he had seen good promise in the regiment. 



4i8 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Page 243, note I. Dr. Lincoln Ripley Stone, of Water- 
town, Massachusetts, was the surgeon of the Fifty-Fourth. 

Page 244, note i. This was during the lull following the 
defeat of Hooker at Chancellorsville, and while Lee was plan- 
ning the invasion of the North which was checked at Gettys- 
burg. 

Page 246, note i. Edwin M. Stanton, the vigorous and 
patriotic Secretary of War, had probably met Lowell, when 
he came, sent by General McClellan, to present to the Presi- 
dent the sheaf of Rebel battle-flags captured at Antietam. He 
had heard from Governor Andrew and Mr. Forbes of Low- 
ell's prompt quelling of the mutiny of the bounty -jumpers in 
Boston, as well as of the daring and intelligence shown in the 
conduct of his squadron of United States Cavalry in the Pen- 
insula. 

Page 24Y, note i. Soon after. Rev. Charles A. Hum- 
phreys was appointed Chaplain of the Second Cavalry, and 
joined the regiment in Virginia. He was cordially received 
and treated with consideration by Colonel Lowell, and re- 
mained with the regiment until the close of the war, except 
during some months in the summer and autumn of 1864, 
when he was in a Southern prison with Major Forbes and 
Lieutenant Amory, all having been captured in a disastrous 
fight at Zion's Church. Mr. Humphreys held his Colonel in 
the highest esteem. He wrote an article about him, in the 
Harvard Monthly, in February, 1 886, to which I am indebted. 
It was through Chaplain Humphreys' instrumentality that the 
marble bust of Colonel Lowell, which adorns the Memorial 
Hall, at Cambridge, was made by the sculptor Daniel Ches- 
ter French, — a gift of the officers and friends of the regiment. 

P^gf 234, note I. Professor Francis J. Child, the accom- 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 419 

plished and genial scholar, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and 
Oratory, later of English, at Harvard College, and remem- 
bered by his admirable editing of English and Scottish Bal- 
lads, was an ardent and useful patriot. His spirited collection. 
War Songs for Freemen, set to stirring tunes, were sung in 
the college yard by youths, many, of whom soon left their 
studies for the front. 

This letter shows surprising foresight in Lowell. Lee's in- 
vasion began immediately afterward, was checked at Gettys- 
burg, and Vicksburg fell before Grant; but within a week 
draft riots in Boston and New York, dangerous and bloody, 
broke out and were sternly suppressed. In spite of the de- 
feats, the Rebel power was not broken. The Presidential elec- 
tion was a great victory, and England did not dare to aid the 
Confederates; yet the war dragged slowly until Grant's ad- 
vance on Richmond began, in May. In spite of his siege of 
Richmond, Washington was again endangered in July, 1864, 
and Maryland and Pennsylvania threatened by Early even later. 

Page 2^^, note i. Colonel Lowell's opinion of McClellan 
as man, citizen, and soldier, should carry some weight, as 
coming from a man of high standards and " in friendship 
stern," who had been closely associated with McClellan in 
times of his severest trial, by the enemy before him and the 
Administration behind him. As to politics, and his becoming 
a candidate in opposition to Lincoln, evidently Lowell felt 
that McClellan had made a great mistake, but, like many an- 
other honest soldier in the field before and since, was inno- 
cently the victim of a party whose designs he did not fathom. 
It should be remembered too, that, rightly or wrongly, 
McClellan evidently felt that interference by a civilian Ad- 
ministration had thwarted and clogged his movements and 



420 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

plans in carrying on the war, which, of course, was, at the 
time, the one great issue for the country. Lowell also often felt 
that the President's course with regard to matters relating to 
army discipline and the conduct of the war was halting or un- 
wise, yet, as matters stood, he considered it all-important that 
he be reelected and McClellan defeated. Mrs. Lowell wrote 
of her husband, that he " cared very much for General 
McClellan, and had a great respect for him as a man and a 
patriot. He always defended him against attacks. I remem- 
ber his saying that the trouble with him as a general was, 
that he had a very high ideal of excellence for his army and 
felt painfully every deficiency, never realizing that the enemy 
was in much worse plight than he himself, but fancying them 
to be in perfect condition in every particular, and so was 
anxious not to come to close quarters until he could bring his 
army to a state of perfection too." 

Major Henry L. Higginson has done me the kindness to 
send me this little wayside memory, as it were, of the Antie- 
tam campaign, much to the purpose. 

November 5, 1906. 

* ' In September, 1862, our regiment ( First Massachusetts 
Cavalry) had just been brought from the South. The senior 
officers were away, and I was in command of such part 
of it as was together — one battalion having been left at the 
South. As we went through Washington, coming from Alex- 
andria, I went into Headquarters to see if I could find 
Charles Lowell; and he was there, and in very good spirits, 
because General McClellan had just been put into command 
again; for the army had had a terrible lot of beating under 
Pope, was much disorganized by these reverses, and was just 
going through Maryland in such order as the soldiers came in. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 421 

•' I did n't see Charles again until one day during the same 
week, when we stopped for our nooning. The country was 
covered with soldiers in every direction, — in the roads, and 
fields, and everywhere else, — and they were all marching 
northerly. Noticing a lot of good tents near by, I asked what 
they were, and was told it was Headquarters; so I went up 
and found Charles there. He and I lay on the grass during 
an idle half hour, and he told me about General McClellan. 
He had been on his staiF some time, after having served with 
his regiment on the Peninsula, and he had pretty distinct ideas 
about the man on whom so much depended. He said to me, 
* He is a great strategist, and the men have much faith in him. 
He makes his plans admirably, makes all his preparations so as 
to be ready for any emergency, just as the Duke of Welling- 
ton did, and unlike the Duke of Wellington, when he comes 
to strike, he doesn't strike in a determined fashion; that is, 
he prepares very well and then doesn't do the best thing — 
strike hard.' Now, of course, that conversation was confiden- 
tial and couldn't have been repeated at the time, nor was it; 
but look at the two battles! In a day or two we fought at 
South Mountain, and I lay on the extreme outpost the night 
before the fight. I saw the troops come by, — these demora- 
lized troops, full of the devil, laughing and talking, — and 
saw them go up South Mountain on all sides and pitch the 
enemy out quickly and without hesitation. It was a beautiful 
field to see and the fight was beautifiiUy done, but the Johnnies 
never had a chance. We were in greater force, and the 
attack was made at various points. It was a very gallant ac- 
tion. That was Sunday morning, and the fight continued 
through the day. 

**If General McClellan had pushed right on with the army 



422 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

on all sides, both there and at Crampton's Gap, and every- 
where else, he would have beaten the Southern army more 
readily at the next fight. We could have gone on that night, 
for we did no fighting at all, and there was cavalry enough 
and plenty of infantry that also could have gone on. Mon- 
day we crossed the mountain and rode along until we came 
to Sharpsburg and the Antietam Creek. There lay Lee's 
men in excellent position, and there they remained until we 
fought them. The army was up that night, and McCIellan came 
by somewhere about six o'clock, and was cheered all along the 
line as he rode to the front. It was Tuesday afternoon before 
we did anything, and Wednesday came the great fight. If 
you will read McCIellan' s diary, you will see that he fought 
at one point, then fought at another, and then at another. 
He told Burnside to move at either eight or half-past eight. 
Charley took the order to Burnside. Burnside moved at twelve. 
If McCIellan had been a little ugly, he would have dropped 
Burnside right out, at nine o'clock, and somebody would have 
made the attack at once that was made at twelve. If this had 
been done, striking hard on the left, it would have cut off Lee 
from Shepherd's Ford, and he would have had no other retreat. 
If McCIellan had struck on the left and on the right at the 
same time, it would have been very confusing to General Lee, 
and it would have cut off the reenforcements that came in that 
day. 

**Iam not accurate, of course, in my statements about details, 
but the general story is this : that, having made excellent pre- 
parations, and having an army that was fighting well, he did n't 
strike as hard as he could — and it was just what Charley had 
said. His strategy was excellent, but his movements were 
slow, and when the decisive moment came, he hesitated. You 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 423 

should remember, by the way, that General McCIellan had 
Lee's order to his subordinates in his own hands on Saturday 
night. You may remember that General D, H. Hill lost his 
orders; one of our men found them and took them to General 
McCIellan, and he read them Saturday night, which of course 
was an immense advantage to us. 

*' Charles's opinion about McCIellan was of course confi- 
dential, then. Now it is a matter of history ; but there was 
the judgment of a very keen, clear-sighted man, who had great 
powers of analysis, and who had a very high opinion of his 
commanding officer, and who was entirely loyal to him." 

Lowell, then, though quite aware of General McClellan's 
limitations, respected his character, and, withal, his important 
services to the country in creating and training an efficient 
army, — services vi^hich are too often ignored. It is well to 
recall the facts : an engineer officer — with short but creditable 
experience in the war with Mexico, then employed as teacher 
at West Point and as explorer on the Plains and in the Moun- 
tains, who had had indeed an opportunity at British head- 
quarters in the Crimea to watch an ill-conducted war, and 
then returned to command of a cavalry squadron in peace at 
home, then resigned and became for four years a railroad man- 
ager — found himself, at the age of thirty -six, commander of a 
vast but unskilled and untrained army, in a fierce and deter- 
mined struggle for the existence of a nation. General F. A. Pal- 
frey, a mihtary critic who admits McClellan's failure as a great 
commander, yet says, ** Under him « the uprising of a great 
people' became a powerful military engine. His forces were 
never worsted, or decisively beaten by the enemy. They 
never came in contact with the enemy without inflicting a 
heavy loss upon him. He never knocked his head against a 



424 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

wall, as Burnside did at Fredericksburg ; never drew back his 
hand when victory was within his grasp, as Hooker did at 
Chancellorsville ; he never spilt blood vainly by a parallel 
attack upon gallantly defended works, as Grant did at Cold 
Harbour. He took too good care of his army. His general 
management of the move from the hnes before Richmond to 
the James was wise and successful, though, if he had been a 
fighter instead of a planner, . . . the movement might have 
been, as it ought to have been, attended with vastly greater 
proportionate loss to the Confederates, and perhaps have been 
concluded by a crushing defeat at Malvern Hill." 

Page 2^8, note i. The invasion of the North was beginning, 
by way of the Shenandoah Valley, and Hooker, intent on 
guarding Washington, had not yet started in pursuit. Mosby, 
with his guerrilla band, had crossed the Potomac into Mary- 
land on the night of the i oth and 1 1 th, and Lowell was tele- 
graphed : "Go where you please in pursuit of Mosby !" 
and promptly set out ; but unfortunately before the message 
came Mosby had made his raid, re-crossed to Virginia and 
scattered his band. 

Page 2^8, note 2. The subject of this letter's just praise was 
Mr. John Murray Forbes. He was not "Cousin John " to 
Lowell, but the bond of friendship and trust was so strong 
between the men that, as he was Miss Shaw's kinsman, 
Lowell liked to take advantage of the kinship, before his mar- 
riage should entitle him to it. Mr. Forbes was at this time 
in England, a private citizen sent by his government on a mis- 
sion of vital importance. I copy from his Reminiscences, pri- 
vately printed, the same story I have heard from his own 
lips : — 

♦* All through the early months of i 863 the alarm in regard 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 425 

to the Laird ironclads had been increasing until, one Saturday 
morning in March, I received a telegram from Secretary Chase 
of the Treasury asking me to meet him the next morning, 
Sunday, in New York, where Secretary Welles of the Navy 
would also be. I was half ill, but could not refuse, and so met 
the two Secretaries and W. H. Aspinwall at the Fifth Avenue 
Hotel, as requested. They wished Aspinwall and me to go 
at once to England, and see what could be done in the way of 
selling United States bonds, and stopping the outfit of Con- 
federate cruisers, and especially ironclads. We agreed to go, 
and we were asked to draw our own instructions, which we 
did, making them very general in their terms, the main fea- 
tures being a very wide discretion and the unrestricted use of 
ten million of 5-20S then just being prepared for issue to the 
public on this side, but not yet countersigned. It was thought 
necessary that I should embark by the Cunard steamer of 
Wednesday from Boston, and that Aspinwall should follow 
with the bonds in a week. I returned home that night, packed 
up my baggage, left my business, and started, as arranged on 
Wednesday, the i8th of March. . . . Aspinwall agreed to 
bring one of his old steamship captains as an expert, to help us 
in our examination of the British shipyards, then reported to 
be swarming with the outfitting Rebel cruisers." Mr. Forbes 
went to the Barings " and suggested, as a first want, that they 
should put at my disposal ^500,000, for which they were to 
have perhaps ^4,000,000 of 5 -20s as security." This required 
consideration. Mr. Joshua Bates, of the firm, '•* was the best 
of Americans, and he was always for the strongest measures. 
His consultation with Mr. Baring resulted in their handing me 
a bank-book with ^500,000 at my credit, subject to cash 
draft; and so, when Aspinwall arrived, a week later, our 



426 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

finances were all right, and he deposited the 5-20S in Baring's 
vaults, part as security for the money, and the rest subject to 
our orders. ' ' Mr. Forbes used every effort to show the Eng- 
hsh where " their sympathy was due, and that, as neutral, it 
was their duty to stop the sailing of the ironclads known to 
be built for the Confederacy." The Society of Friends and 
the Peace Society were friendly, but cold; and, bad as things 
were, he wrote, "Bright, Cobden, W. E. Forster, the Duke 
of Argyle, and a few others were with us heartily and took 
bold ground in our cause ; but, generally speaking, the 
aristocracy and the trading classes were solid against us. 
Gladstone . . . had not found out the merits of our cause, 
and Lord John Russell, called a liberal member of the Cabinet, 
was with official insolence sneering, even in a public speech, 
at what he called 'the once United States.'" Mr. Forbes 
worked hard to quicken the sympathies of the Society of 
Friends. His coming was welcomed by our brave minister, 
Charles Francis Adams, whose task had become indeed anxious 
and heavy. The work of selling the 5 -20s in England and on 
the Continent was pushed, the purchase of the most threatening 
ironclads, which had been contemplated, proved impracticable. 
Then Mr. Adams took the final step. On the 5 th of Sep- 
tember he wrote to Lord Russell : **At this moment, when 
one of the ironclad vessels is on the point of departure from 
this kingdom on a hostile errand against the United States, it 
would be superfluous for me to point out to your lordship that 
this is war.^'' 

The answer (Sept. 8) was : '• Instructions have been issued 
which will prevent the departure of these two ironclad vessels 
from Liverpool." 

Page 262, note I. One company of the Fifty-Fourth Massa- 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 427 

chusetts Regiment had been part of a force under Colonel 
Montgomery, an old Kansas fighter, which had burned the 
village of Darien, Georgia. See Colonel Lowell's letter of 
June 26, to Hon. William Whiting of Massachusetts. 

Page 262, note 2. Major Caspar Crowninshield of Bos- 
ton, noted in college for his great strength and rowing prowess 
in victories of Harvard over Yale, had done good service in 
the Twentieth Massachusetts Infantry. Thence he was com- 
missioned Major of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, took 
the field in command of the First Battalion, and continued 
in service throughout the war. After Colonel Russell's pro- 
motion to the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry he became lieuten- 
ant-colonel, and, as such, commanded the regiment from the 
moment that Colonel Lowell commanded a brigade. After 
the colonel's death, he, for a time, commanded the Reserve 
Brigade. 

Page 262, note j. Major Higginson's wounds from shot 
and sabre proved so severe as to necessitate his resignation, after 
a long period of suffering. His brother was, as here reported, 
. taken prisoner on the same field. Captain Lucius Manlius 
Sargent, left for dead on the field, recovered, and did active 
service until December, 1864, when he was killed in action 
at Bellfield, Virginia. Captain Adams, the son of our minis- 
ter to England, has since become well known as a good citizen 
and author. 

Page 263, note i. Semmes commanded the rebel privateer 
Alabama, which did enormous mischief to our commerce, by 
burning ships at sea. 

Colonel Lowell was, in the following year, obliged, under 
orders of Grant and Sheridan, to take part in the wholesale 
destruction of crops and factories, and driving off of cattle in 



428 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

the Shenandoah Valley, but this was an important strategic 
measure to cut off supplies from a great storehouse and high- 
way of the Confederate armies. 

Page 267, note I. General Hooker, commanding the 
Army of the Potomac, sent this order to Lowell, who was 
at Poolesville, Maryland, watching the Potomac for spies, 
blockade-runners, guerrillas, or important raids. Lowell 
obeyed, and reported to Slocum, and was sent to Sandy Hook. 
June 28, Major-General Schenck, commanding Middle De- 
partment at Baltimore, was hastily notified from Washington: 
"A strong brigade of the enemy's cavalry have crossed . . . 
near Poolesville. Colonel LoweU, with five companies of the 
2d Mass. Cavalry, who are there, should be warned, so that he 
may be ready for an attack." Then Halleck, General-in-Chief, 
learned that Lowell was not there, and telegraphed Hooker : 
"Lowell's cavalry is the only force for scouts in this depart- 
ment, and he cannot be taken from General Heintzelman's 
command." Lowell was also telegraphed to take no orders 
from General Hooker, and to return and watch the fords from 
Poolesville to Harper's Ferry. But unhappily Stuart had passed 
in his absence. Lowell's force was not large enough to cope 
with the rebel force, had he been there, and the raid seems 
to have resulted in more good than harm. General Doubleday, 
in his Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, says : " It is thought 
that he [Stuart] hoped by threatening Hooker's rear to detain 
him and delay his crossing the river, and thus give time to Lee 
to capture Harrisburg, and perhaps Philadelphia. His raid on 
this occasion w^as undoubtedly a mistake. When he rejoined 
the main body, his men were exhausted, his horses broken 
down, and the battle of Gettysburg was nearly over." 

Page 26p, note i. Colonel Lowell, in a report to head- 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 429 

quarters at Washington during this pursuit, telling that the 
enemy are apparently out of reach, unless driven back towards 
him by Hooker's cavalry, cheerfully ends thus : " Rations are 
out to-day, but I can manage, if you have any information 
that they are hkely to return this way. Shall wait here for 
orders from you." 

Page 2yi, note i. Major-General George G. Meade had 
just been appointed to the command of the Army of the Po- 
tomac, vice Hooker resigned, a position which he kept until 
the end of the war, though, in its last year, acting immediately 
under the orders of General Grant, who was with that army in 
the field. 

Page 276, note i. On July 1 4, General Lee succeeded in 
re-crossing the Potomac into Virginia, before General Meade 
felt ready to assume the responsibility of attacking him, and 
was now comfortably retreating by the way he came, down the 
rich Shenandoah Valley. He needed watching lest he venture 
some bold stroke through the gaps in the Blue Ridge toward 
Washington. Even before he came, Lowell had been sent to 
make some thorough reconnoissancesof the passes, and had done 
so, inflicting and suffering some loss, and bringing in prisoners. 

Page 27p, note i. General David McM. Gregg had 
known Lowell in the Peninsula, having been a captain with 
him in the Sixth U. S. Cavalry. 

Page 280, note i. George Washington Smalley, a grad- 
uate of Yale, and lawyer by profession, was the war-corre- 
spondent of the New York Tribune. He was for a time on 
General Fremont's Staff. He was correspondent for the same 
journal in the Austro-Prussian war, and then in London estab- 
lished the European edition of the Tribune. Still later, he 
was connected with the London Times. 



430 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Page 280, note 2. George William Curtis, good citizen, 
patriot, writer, and orator, had married Miss Shaw's older 
sister. 

Page 283, note i. From Wordsworth's " Character of 
the Happy Warrior," a poem that Lowell in his youth had 
greatly cared for, and which was strangely descriptive of his 
later career. 

Page 286, note i. The story, in brief, of the gallant but 
unsuccessful assault upon Battery Wagner in Charleston harbour 
is this : The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment (coloured), 
after some six weeks' service in Georgia and South Carolina, 
where it won respect and praise, even from original scoiFers, 
had, at Colonel Shaw's request, been transferred to General 
Strong's brigade. The colonel asked "that they might fight 
alongside of white soldiers, and show to somebody else than 
their officers what stuff they were made of." Therefore, at 
six o'clock on the evening of Saturday, July 18, the regi- 
ment reported at General Strong's headquarters on Morris 
Island, after forty-eight hours of marching, or waiting, without 
shelter in rain and thunder, for boat transportation, or stewing 
in tropical heat, with little to eat or drink. They were worn 
and weary. General Strong told Colonel Shaw that he be- 
lieved in his regiment, and wished to assign them, in an 
immediate assault on the enemy's strong works, the post where 
the most severe work was to be done and the highest honour 
won. *' They were at once marched to within 600 yards of 
Fort Wagner and formed in hne of battle, the Colonel head- 
ing the first, and the Major the second battalion. 

'* At this point, the regiment, together with the next sup- 
porting regiment, the Sixth Maine, the Ninth Connecticut, and 
others, remained half an hour. Then, at half-past seven, the 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 431 

order for the charge was given. The regiment advanced at quick 
time, changing to double-quick at some distance on. When 
about one hundred yards from the fort, the Rebel musketry 
opened with such terrible effect that for an instant the first battal- 
ion hesitated; but only for an instant, for Colonel Shaw, spring- 
ing to the front and waving his sword, shouted, ♦ Forward, 
Fifty-Fourth ! ' and with another cheer and a shout they 
rushed through the ditch, and gained the parapet on the right. 
Colonel Shaw was one of the first to scale the walls. He 
stood erect to urge forward his men, and while shouting for 
them to press on was shot dead, and fell into the fort." 

The attempt to take the fort was a desperate one, and failed. 
The Fifty-Fourth did nobly, and suffered terribly. Little quar- 
ter was given. In that furious fight in the last twiUght, lit 
only by gun-flashes, it is said that the firing from our own 
ships was, for a time, disastrous to the regiment. 

Emerson, in his poem called "Voluntaries," commemorates 
the sacrifice of Robert Shaw and his men : — 

So nigh is grandeur to our dust. 

So near is God to man. 

When Duty whispers low. Thou must. 

The youth replies, / can. 

Best befriended of the God 
He who, in evil times. 
Warned by an inward voice. 
Heeds not the darkness and the dread. 
Biding by his rule and choice. 
Feeling only the fiery thread 
Leading over heroic ground, 



432 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Walled with mortal terror round. 
To the aim which him allures. 
And the sweet Heaven his deed secures. 
Peril around, all else appalling, 
Cannon in front and leaden rain. 
Him Duty through the clarion calling 
To the van called not in vain. 

Stainless soldier on the walls. 
Knowing this, — and knows no more, — 
Whoever fights, whoever falls. 
Justice conquers evermore. 
Justice after as before, — 
And he who battles on her side, 
God, though he were ten times slain. 
Crowns him victor glorified, 
Victor over death and pain. 

Page 28g, note i. Besides that already mentioned, other 
important reconnoissances, and escort duty to supply-trains, 
were performed by Colonel Lowell's command during July. 
In the end of the month, Mosby with his " Partisan " force 
made some very successful raids on the army wagon-trains, 
capturing near Alexandria between one and two hundred pris- 
oners, with many horses, mules, wagons, etc. General King 
ordered Lowell to pursue, and he returned on the last day of 
July, with many men and horses recaptured. About the ist 
of August, he was put in command of a brigade, consisting of 
the Second Massachusetts and Thirteenth and Sixteenth New 
York Cavalry regiments. The First Battalion now rejoined the 
Second Cavalry, after several months' service in the Peninsula. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 433 

Page 28g, note 2. In the Reminiscences of Mr. J. M. 
Forbes (privately printed) is a letter written to him by Mr, 
Frank G. Shaw, just after his son's death, from which I am 
allowed to quote : — 

*• He has gone from us, and we try not to think of our loss, 
but of his gain. We have had no doubt since the first news 
came. We had expected it. . . . We thank God that he 
died without pain, in what was to him the moment of triumph ; 
and we thank God especially for his happy life, and that he 
did not rise to his eminence through suffering, but through 
joy." 

Mr. Forbes adds, " I have seen no reference yet to our 
late friend's manly nobility [Mr. Shaw had recently died]. 
Every one remembers the brutal answer of the rebels to our 
flag of truce, when General Gilmore, after the assault on Fort 
Wagner, asked for Colonel Shaw's body: 'We have thrown 
him into the ditch under his niggers.' When we recaptured 
the fort, an attempt was made to find the sacred relics ; and 
the general in command, or probably Secretary Stanton, wrote 
to Mr. Shaw asking some intimation as to what should be 
done in case of their recovery, and suggesting a monument 
recalling the indignity which had been offered. No thought 
of vengeance had ever been mixed up with Frank Shaw's 
patriotism or clouded his serene brow. . . . The answer 
which now came — I think from both parents — was grand 
in its . . . simplicity. • We wish no search made, nor 
is there any monument so worthy of a soldier as the mound 
heaped over him by the bodies of his comrades.' " 

Page 2g2, note i. Mr. John W. Brooks left Massachu- 
setts as a youth to begin life as a civil engineer on the 
New York Central, and, later, the Michigan Central Rail- 



434 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

road. He had grown in power even more rapidly than these 
growing roads, and was occupying an important position in 
the management of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 
Railroad. He had no military experience whatever except as 
having helped Governor Andrew by his advice in the pur- 
chase, through Mr. Forbes, of English cannon. Yet Lowell, a 
soldier, who knew Brooks's powers and intelligence, recom- 
mends him for a major-general, in a place where his admin- 
istrative powers would be worth more than one or two battles 
gained. Mr. Forbes, in the spring of the same year, writing to 
Governor Andrew, had said of him, " Brooks is more than 
engineer or man of business : he has that wonderful combina- 
tion which seems to me to amount almost to Genius ; his mind 
is both microscopic and telescopic, according as the valves are 
pulled, and, above all, is sound at the medium, every-day insight 
which makes common sense ; just as Napoleon could make 
parties and command armies while reforming his code of laws 
in detail. In fact. Brooks is more like Napoleon I than any- 
body else. Now, on all matters relating to the handling of men. 
Brooks has had great experience, and on any questions that 
come up about managing the draft, or giving bounties, or 
getting men, . . . nobody's judgment will be as good as his." 

Page 2g2, note 2. General George L. Andrews, an officer 
in the Regular Army, had been the Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
Second Massachusetts Infantry, which he had helped to raise. 

Page 2g4, note l. As, for the following twelve months, 
the energies of Lowell and the officers and soldiers of his 
brigade were kept on the strain by day, and more often by 
night, by the dangerous activity of the guerrilla chief Mosby 
and his band, it seems well to give some account of them 
here. By a strict construction of the laws of war, the prac- 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 435 

tices of this and similar bands then operating within our lines 
would probably have outlawed them. The Administration, 
however, did not take this stand, probably from the fear of 
provoking endless retaliation. 

John Singleton Mosby, born in Virginia, a lawyer by pro- 
fession, was a man of intelligence, daring, and great energy, 
which gifts he devoted to the service of the Southern cause, 
but in an irregular channel. His first military service was as 
a private in the First Virginia Cavalry, where he attracted 
the attention of Colonel, afterwards General J. E. B. Stuart. 
Seeing the advantage which the operations of a mounted 
guerrilla force would have, operating within the lines of the 
armies of the United States in the neighbourhood of the national 
capital, their main source of reenforcement and supplies ; also 
the romantic and material attraction that such service would 
offer to young men, in contrast to army discipline and hard- 
ship for precarious pay, Mosby drafted a bill authorizing such 
a force, which was passed by the Confederate Congress in 
March, 1863. 

I quote, with the publisher's permission, from Mosby' s 
JVar Reminiscences, the following passages as to this bill and 
the principles (if one may so call them) on which he recruited 
his command and waged war: — 

" The Partisan Ranger Law was an act of the Confederate 
Congress, authorizing the President to issue commissions to 
officers to organize partisan corps. They stood on the same 
footing with other cavalry organizations in respect to rank and 
pay, but, in addition, were given the benefit of the law of 
maritime prize. There was really no novelty in applying this 
principle to land forces. England has alw^ays done so in Her 
Majesty's East India service, . , , Havelock, Campbell, and 



436 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Outram returned home from the East loaded with barbaric 
spoils. As there is a good deal of human nature in people, 
and as Major Dalgetty is still a type of a class, it will be seen 
how the peculiar privileges given to my men served to whet 
their zeal. I have often heard them disputing over the division 
of the horses before they were captured, etc. " 

"To destroy supply-trains, to breakup the means of con- 
veying intelligence, and thus isolating the army from its base, 
as well as its different corps from each other, to confuse their 
plans by capturing despatches, are the objects of partisan war. 
. . . The military value of a partisan's work is not reckoned 
by the amount of property destroyed, but by the number he 
keeps watching. ... I endeavoured, as far as possible, to 
diminish the aggressive power of the Army of the Potomac, by 
compelling it to keep a large force on the defensive. . . . 

<' My men had no camps. If they had gone into camp, 
they would soon have all been captured. They would scatter 
for safety, and gather at my call like the Children of the 
Mist. . . . 

" I often sent small squads at night to attack and run in 
the pickets along a line of several miles. Of course these alarms 
were very annoying, for no human being knows how sweet 
sleep is but a soldier. I wanted to use and consume the North- 
ern Cavalry in hard work. It has always been a wonder with 
people how I managed to collect my men after dispersing them. 
The true secret was, that it was a fascinating life, and its 
attractions far more than counterbalanced its hardships and 
dangers. They had no camp duty to do, which, however 
necessary, is disgusting to soldiers of high spirit." ' 
' Mosby's War Rtminiscences. Boston : George A.Jones &Co., 1887. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 437 

General J. E. B. Stuart, the brilliant cavalry leader, a 
friend and admirer of Mosby, shows, in a letter to him on his 
appointment to the new command, that he thought it well not 
to be quite frank as to this new kind of soldier. ** Already a 
Captain," he writes, "you will proceed to organize a band 
of permanent followers for the war, but by all means ignore 
the term ' Partisan Rangers.' It is in bad repute. Call your 
command * Mosby's Regulars,' and it will soon give it a tone 
of meaning and solid worth which all the world will soon 
recognize, and you will inscribe that name of a fearless band 
of heroes on the pages of our country's history and inshrine 
it in the hearts of a grateful people. Let 'Mosby's Regulars' 
be a name of pride with friends and of respectful trepidation 
with enemies." {^Rebellion Record.') 

Colonel Mosby has the virtue of frankness. He says in his 
book: " In one respect the charge that I did not fight fair is 
true. I fought for success, and not for display. There was no 
man in the Confederate Army who had less of the Spirit of 
Knighthood in him or who took a more practical view of war 
than I did. . . • There is no authenticated act of mine 
which is not perfectly in accordance with approved military 
usage." 

I am also allowed to quote the following extracts from 
Major John Scott's Partisan Life with Mosby, partly for the 
information they give concerning the method of warfare, and 
partly for their interesting rhetoric and ethics. 

"The principle which distinguishes the Partisan Ranger 
service is the distribution, among the officers and men, of the 
spoil captured from the enemy, and, though Mosby refuses to 
avail himself of it, for his own enrichment, he yet values it 
as a powerful magnet to attract and bind adventurous spirits 



438 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

to his standard. The dreaming statesman may indulge the 
reverie that, in republics, the patriotic principle is sufficient to 
impel men to the discharge of military duty, but the practical 
and clear-sighted genius of Mosby knows that mankind are 
governed by the grosser motive of immediate self-interest and, 
impressed by this belief, he made the strenuous effort of which 
I have told you to construct his command on this basis." 

For the honour of American manhood one wishes here to 
enter a protest, and call to mind the sufferings and sacrifices of 
brave Confederate soldiers of the line, by tens of thousands, 
for their cause. 

Major Scott goes on : — 

" This system of warfare, defensive in its object, yet 
aggressive in its principle, has baffled all these attempts [of 
Federal officers to suppress him] , because, as soon as the blow 
is inflicted, the assailants are at once scattered before time is 
afforded to strike them in return. The angry cloud gathers, 
the thunders roll through the sky, the fatal flash is emitted, 
and the discharged vapours roll into the air. 

"Mosby, in an open country, finds security in dispersion 
among a friendly and chivalrous people. With them the mem- 
bers of the battalion live as boarders and friends ; the farmers, 
for a moderate compensation, and sometimes without compen- 
sation at all, providing food and shelter for the soldier and his 
horse. This familiar association between the soldiers and the 
citizens has developed a very pleasant and romantic state of 
society, and its elevating effects on the former are very 
marked. . . . From their boarding-houses, the men called 
at various places of rendezvous, which are always selected with 
reference to the vicinity of a blacksmith's shop. From these 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 439 

places issue, daily, detachments varying in strength. ... In 
addition to his [Mosby's] proper command, there is another 
element composed of loose and unemployed material, which 
Mosby is now able to combine and hurl against the invaders of 
his country. His custom is to advertise about a week in ad- 
vance a meeting to be held at one of the rendezvous, and to it 
repair those who love adventure and plunder. But the most 
abundant and useful source from which these temporary recruits 
are derived, is from the members of the regular cavalry at home 
on detail or furlough. . . . Convalescents from the hospitals 
also will sometimes join him for a single raid ; but when the 
Yankees come in pursuit, . . . they will find them languidly 
stretched upon their pallets. . , . You ask if it is by love 
he controls his men ? No, he is not weak enough to be 
cheated by that fallacy. . . . Fear and Confidence are the 
genii he invokes, and, united to a conviction of his incorruptible 
integrity, they have enabled him to enchain his followers to 
his standard " ' 

Mosby's sphere of operations included these four counties 
of Virginia, — Fairfax, Loudoun, Fauquier, and Prince Wil- 
liam ; a region south of the Potomac and east of the Blue Ridge, 
as large as Worcester County in Massachusetts, lying between 
Washington and the Army of the Potomac, hence constantly 
travelled by supply-trains. It was overwhelmingly Confederate 
in its sympathies. Colonel Lowell, with his small brigade, had 
the principal responsibility of defending this, picking up such 
information as he could from the few brave Union farmers, 
and helped by a few daring local scouts. 

Page 2g6, note i. A letter of General Lee to General 

' Partisan Life with Mosby, by Major John Scott. New York : Harper 
and Brothers, 1867. 



440 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Stuart shows that, before the "Partisan Rangers" had been 
four months at work, the military advantages to the Confed- 
eracy of their keeping a large force around Washington already 
began to be outweighed by the obvious evils which must re- 
sult where discipline was lax, and the soldier kept what horses, 
clothing, arms, and valuables he took. General Lee, writing on 
August 1 8, 1863, observes that Mosby seems to have a large 
number of men, yet to strike with very few; and ** his atten- 
tion seems more directed to the capture of sutlers' wagons, 
etc., than to the injury of the enemy's communications and 
outposts. The capture and destruction of wagon-trains is ad- 
vantageous, but the supply of the Federal Army is carried on 
by the railroad. ... I do not know the cause for under- 
taking his expeditions with so few men, whether it is from 
policy, or the difficulty of collecting them. I have heard of 
his men, among them officers, being in rear of this army, sell- 
ing captured goods, sutlers' stores, etc. This had better be 
attended to by others. It has also been reported to me that 
many deserters from the army had joined him. ... If this 
is true, I am sure it must be without the knowledge of Major 
Mosby." {Rebellion Record.) 

The official correspondence of General King with head- 
quarters at Washington, and Colonel Lowell's reports, always 
brief, business-like and conservative, show that August was 
an active month. Besides Mosby' s plundering incursions and 
picket attacks, he had a new guerrilla foe to deal with in 
White, as appears in the following extracts from official 
sources : — 

Centreville, Aug. i, 1863. 

Col. J. H. Taylor, Chief of Staff, Washington, — 
Colonel Lowell goes to Washington to-day to report, as 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 441 

ordered. He returned from an expedition last night, bringing 
in about twenty horses captured from Mosby, and all the 
prisoners taken by Mosby at Fairfax. The gang scattered in 
all directions, and thus eluded pursuit. 

RuFus King, Brigadier-General. 

Mosby reports to General Stuart that, on August 1 1 , he 
captured nineteen wagons, with teams and many stores ; also 
twenty-five prisoners. 

On August 1 2, Colonel Lowell reported to Washington the 
recent capture of sutlers' trains by Mosby' s and White's men, 
and that he had sent out parties to look for them, and adds : 

**I sent, in 61 horses on Monday and 55 more to-day, 
most of them United States horses, some captured, some col- 
lected to the northwest of here, and some near Maple Val- 
ley." 

August I 5 . Colonel Lowell advised from Washington to 
try to find and attack White near Dranesville. 

August 20. Colonel Lowell reports his search for guerrillas, 
lasting two or three days, following up all traces — "could 
not get a fight out of White " — picked up ten prisoners. 
Reports that White is seldom with his battalion (about two 
hundred and fifty strong), but passes about the country with 
a strong escort. " White is looking up recruits and deserters. 
He has now six companies, with over 700 men on his rolls, 
and prisoners say that he expects to take that number with 
him when he leaves the country." 

August 2 5 . General King reports to Washington that one 
hundred rebel cavalry attacked a party of the Thirteenth N. Y. 
Cavalry [this was a part of Colonel Lowell's brigade] and 
ran off one hundred horses. 



442 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

August 30, General King reports that a party of infantry 
and cavalry, sent out to Dranesville, found few guerrillas, but 
learned that White was at Broad Run enforcing the conscrip- 
tion, and that Mosby had been recently wounded and carried 
beyond the mountains. 

September 3. General Humphreys writes to Colonel Low- 
ell, commanding at CentrevillCj as to White's movements, 
and adds, "A Richmond paper of ist Sept. states that Mosby 
received two serious wounds in the fight near Fairfax Court 
House, and has been taken to his father's residence near Am- 
herst." 

Page 2p3, note i. Cabot Jackson Russel, a very young 
but valiant captain in the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry, 
had been killed on the slopes of Fort Wagner ; but at this 
time his family thought him a prisoner in the enemy's hands. 
He was Colonel Lowell's cousin, the only son of Mr. Wil- 
liam C. Russel of New York. President Lincoln had given 
very little encouragement to Mr. Russel as to the Admin- 
istration's showing the Southerners that it meant to protect 
officers oi coloured troops in earnest. 

Page 300, note i. Mr. William J. Potter, of Quaker an- 
cestry and great virtues and gifts, was pastor of a large, intel- 
ligent, and rich society in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and 
highly esteemed. On July 3, 1863, he was drafted for a 
soldier, under the new Conscription Act. On the followdng 
Sunday he preached to his people a manly sermon, " The 
Voice of the Draft," from the text " Make full proof of thy 
ministry'" (2 Tim. iv, 5), strongly stating the duty and 
privilege, even for scholars and men with no natural military 
tastes, to serve in such a war, in such an emergency of the 
country. Secretary Stanton read it, and had it at once pub- 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 443 

lished in the Army and Navy Gazette, as the word for the 
hour. He set Mr. Potter the important task of visiting and 
inspecting all the U. S. hospitals in or near Washington, which 
he did well and thoroughly, reporting their needs. Then, as 
chaplain to the convalescent hospital, he lived there in a little 
hut with his young wife, but resigned to join in the vast and 
beneficent work of the Sanitary Commission. Afterwards he 
returned to his church in New Bedford. He was one of the 
founders and chief workers in the Free Religious Associa- 
tion. 

When young Potter was in college, he began to feel strongly 
drawn to the ministry, yet sorely doubting his fitness. ** What 
society or sect must I go with, believing with none ? I have 
in my mind, it is true, an ideal minister, different from any 
real one whom it was ever my lot to know." His success 
was in the measure he approached this ideal. 

Page 303, note i. The Government and Major-General 
Heintzelman, commanding the Department of Washington, 
fully appreciated the advantage of having so efficient a cavalry 
commander and well disciplined a force in the neighbourhood. 
But they had to resist other competitors, for, besides the de- 
sires of General Gregg to have Lowell and his regiment in the 
Army of the Potomac, another general repeatedly importuned 
the War Department for them. Major-General N. P. 
Banks (Department of the Gulf), in his report to General 
Halleck, March 27, 1863, speaking of his need of cavalry, 
says : — 

** I feel especially the loss of the Second Massachusetts 
Cavalry, raised expressly for my expedition ; for, besides its 
strength, I relied upon Colonel Lowell to infuse the necessary 
vigour into the whole cavalry service." 



444 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Again, April 18, 1863, General Banks sends the following 
message to Major- General Halleck : — 

"I beg leave, at the risk of being considered importunate, 
to repeat my earnest request that more cavalry be sent to this 
department. ... If you will send me the Second Massa- 
chusetts Cavalry, raised expressly for my command, with their 
arms and equipments, I will mount them here from the horses 
captured on this expedition. Its commander. Colonel Lowell, 
is personally nearly as important to us as his regiment." 

As late as September, General Banks was still pleading for 
the cavalry. General Halleck answered : "In regard to 
Colonel Lowell's regiment, I need simply to mention the fact 
that it is the only one we have for scouts and pickets in front 
of Washington." 

Page 304, note i. The officers here spoken of are Cap- 
tain James J. Higginson, of the First Massachusetts Cavalry 
(who was captured in the fight at Aldie, where his brother, 
the Major, was wounded), and Captain Francis Lee Higgin- 
son, his younger brother, and Captain Cabot J. Russel, both 
of the Fifty-Fourth. As has been said. Captain Russel' s fam- 
ily were not sure of his death. When the news of the raising 
of coloured troops was heard in the South, it had been threat- 
ened that captured privates should be sold to slavery and the 
officers treated as felons. This threat was not carried out, 
but difficulties arose about exchanges ; and in this matter, and 
that of their payment, the course of the Administration and of 
Congress was for a long time timid and discreditable. 

Page 313 y note i. Mr. George William Curtis, Colonel 
Shaw's brother-in-law, had evidently had his patience over- 
taxed by the recent outcrop of barbarity at Fort Wagner, and 
had little left for guerrillas and their methods. Colonel Lowell 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 445 

had something of the trait which his uncle, in the poem about 
Blondel, gave to Richard Coeur de Lion : — 

** To foes benign, in friendship stern." 

P^S^ 3^4f note i. Colonel Lowell obtained a short leave 
of absence, and, on the last day of October, married Miss 
Shaw, at Staten Island. Soon after, she came with him to his 
brigade camp at Vienna, and they had their only home hfe 
that winter and the following spring, in a little house within 
the camp lines, and when the camp was moved to Fall's 
Church, for a short time in a tent. Yet couriers by day, 
bringing word of Mosby's ubiquitous raids, and sudden and 
stealthy attacks on the pickets at midnight, constantly harassed 
the command, and did not allow the Colonel to relax his 
vigilance. 

Page JI^, note j. Chaplain Humphreys wrote home of 
the kindly and refining influence of Mrs. Lowell's presence 
in the camp, and of the hospitality that welcomed the officers 
in turn at the little home which the Colonel and she had 
established there. He adds: "With the foreigners in the 
hospital, I was greatly assisted by the wife of the commander, 
who visited the patients very frequently. She delighted the 
Frenchmen, Italians, and Germans, by conversing with them 
in their own languages, that so vividly recalled their early 
homes. She often assisted in writing letters for the disabled 
soldiers, and when I sought to give comfort to the dying, her 
presence soothed the pangs of parting, with a restful conscious- 
ness of woman's faithful watching and a mother's tender- 
ness." 

Page 316, note i. The official documents show the activ- 
ity of the brigade during the later months of 1863, scouting 



446 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

parties and counter raids and picket attacks, of which I men- 
tion a few specimens : — 

October 1 3 . Colonel Lowell reports a scouting expedi- 
tion he had made through Thornton, Herndon Station, Fry- 
ing Pan, to Gum Spring, — nothing found. Reports Captain 
Rumery's (Second Cavalry) encounter with White's men, 
capturing one man and three horses from them, 

October 22. Colonel Baker (under Colonel Lowell's 
orders) reports that a detachment of his command, and one 
from the Californians in the Second Massachusetts, met some 
of Mosby's men near Fairfax; killed one, and captured "the 
three celebrated guerrillas. Jack Barns, Edwin Stratton, and Bill 
Hanover," whom he forwarded to the Old Capitol Prison. 

October 19. Mosby reports to Stuart a very successful 
raid on an army-train near Annandale; that he captured over 
one hundred horses and mules, wagons with stores, seventy- 
five to one hundred prisoners, arms, etc., with no loss. Then 
comes a rumour of another great invasion by Lee and Long- 
street about to occur, and General Pleasanton sends General 
Gregg to operate with Colonel Lowell at Fairfax. General 
Corcoran reports to Washington that Lowell is scouring the 
country. It proves that there is no invasion. 

October 27. Mosby reports that, the night before, he at- 
tacked the centre of a long wagon-train hauling supplies for 
the army to Warrenton. His men unhitched the teams from 
more than forty wagons, and ran off one hundred and forty- 
five horses and mules and ** thirty negroes and Yankees." '♦ I 
had forty men." 

November 5. Mosby reports that he has killed Kilpatrick's 
division commissary, and captured an adjutant, five men, six 
horses, etc. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 447 

November 17. Colonel Lowell reports one sergeant and 
three men of the Thirteenth New York Cavalry captured by 
rebels — twenty or thirty, in Union overcoats, advancing to 
the sentries with a pretended pass, — wounded one man. 

November 22. Mosby reports that, since November 5, he 
has captured seventy-five cavalrymen, over one hundred horses 
and mules, six wagons, etc. 

Each of these raids, at a new place, in a wide region, was 
followed by a pursuit ; but the freebooters had scattered in 
every direction, having no camp, only to muster again when 
ordered. 

November 26. Colonel Lowell reports a reconnoissance by 
one of his captains, with twenty-five mounted and seventy-five 
dismounted men (the latter concealed as far as possible, and 
marching chiefly by night), towards the Blue Ridge ; Yankee 
Davis and Binns (a rebel deserter) as guides. Colonel Lowell, 
later, with one hundred mounted men, joins these at Middle- 
burg. 

December 13. Colonel Lowell reports : "This morning, 
at about three o'clock, the picket at Germantown were sur- 
prised by a party of guerrillas, dismounted, some twenty strong. 
They crawled up and shot (without any warning), mortally 
wounding two men and capturing five horses and their equip- 
ments." 

December 20. Colonel Lowell reports a reconnoissance 
led by him, on the i8th, on the trail of Rosser's and White's 
large force, which had cut telegraph Hnes and burned bridges, 
and gone farther. On his way back he chased some of Mos- 
by' s men, and brought in two prisoners and sixteen horses. 

December 21. Colonel Lowell reports twenty to thirty 
guerrillas near his camp the night before, who attacked one 



448 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

of his picket stations, got four horses and wounded two men. 
The same night they attacked an officer and his escort on 
Fairfax Road, and wounded two, *• One of the wounded 
men, near Hunter's Mill, was shot a second time through the 
body by a guerrilla, after he had surrendered and given up his 
pistol. Party sent in pursuit, but to no purpose." 

December 27. Colonel Lowell reports a scout to Leesburg 
by fifty men of the Thirteenth New York Cavalry, guided 
by Binns, who had deserted the Confederates. They searched 
houses, and brought in eight prisoners, "among them Pettin- 
gall (a notorious scout), Joe White, Bridges (one of Mosby's 
men), and Beavers, with other suspicious citizens pointed out 
by Binns." Had a few shots at distant parties. 

December 3 1 . Colonel Lowell reports the return of his 
parties sent on extensive scouting expeditions to Hopewell's 
Gap, White Plains, Middleburg, Upperville, Philomont, 
Dranesville, etc. It was supposed that clothing was to be 
issued to the rebels, but they did not appear at the place speci- 
fied. A party fell in with some of Mosby's men and some 
Virginia cavalry; captured one captain, one lieutenant, seven- 
teen privates, forage contractor, and ten suspicious citizens, 
most of whom were thought to be recruits or conscripts. 

The above reports, taken fi-om the Rebellion Record, show 
how constant and exacting was the service of holding the guer- 
rilla bands in check. 

The views of the General-in-Chief on the ** Partisans," as 
tried by the standard of military ethics, is shown in the following 
extracts from an official letter of Major-General Halleck : — 

"Washington, Oct. 28, 1863. 
*♦ Most of the difficulties are caused by the conduct of the 
pretended non-combatant inhabitants of the country. They 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 449 

pretend to act the part of neutrals, but do not. They give 
aid, shelter, and concealment to guerrilla and other bands, like 
that of Mosby, who are continually destroying our roads, 
burning our bridges, and capturing wagon-trains. If these 
men carried on a legitimate warfare, no complaint would be 
made. On the contrary, they fight in citizen's dress, and are 
aided in all their rascalities by the people of the country. As 
soon as they are likely to be caught they go home, put out 
their horses, hide their arms, and pretend to be quiet and 
non-combatant farmers. ... It is not surprising that our 
people get exasperated at such men and shoot them down 
when they can. Moreover, men who act in this manner in 
disguise and within our lines have, under the laws of civilized 
warfare, forfeited their lives." {^Rebellion Record, xxix, ii, 

347-) 

General Stoneman, in a letter from the Cavalry Bureau to 
Colonel Kelton, A. A. G., written Oct. 30, 1863, tells of 
the enormous numbers of sick, disabled, and unserviceable 
horses there, and of the wilful or necessary neglect of them, 
and their misuse or overuse in the field and camp. 

The average issue per month to the Army of the Potomac 
was 6000. In the details of the number of horses he lately is- 
sued to different commands, were only one hundred to Colonel 
Lowell, against much larger numbers to others. [Yet the 
guerrilla-hunting service was very destructive to horses.] 
General Stoneman writes : — 

" There are 223 regiments of cavalry in the service. Of 
these, 36 are in the Army of the Potomac. At the rate horses 
are used up in that army, it would require 435,000 a year to 
keep the cavalry of that army up." 

P^Z^ 316, note 2. Colonel Lowell's letters during the 



450 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

winter and spring are very few, because his wife was now with 
him in camp, and his military duties were many. He still 
commanded the brigade, with headquarters at Vienna. Of his 
own regiment, the battalions commanded by Major Forbes and 
Captain Read were there; Major Thompson with his battalion 
being stationed on the Maryland side of the Potomac, guarding 
that approach to Washington. From Vienna, picketing and 
scouting parties went out against the ever-active foe. 

On Feb. 4, 1864, a painful incident — desertion to the 
enemy by a private of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry — 
occurred. I tell the story as told to me by Mrs. Lowell 
and some of the officers. There was in the regiment, as has 
been said, besides the Californians and the better class of the 
Massachusetts contingent, unfortunately a bad element of 
would-be bounty-jumpers and roughs still present, and deser- 
tions had been frequent. An example of severe punishment 
was needed for the good of the service, yet deserters had been 
pardoned by the President. One night a picket-guard deserted 
"off post," taking his horse, arms, and accoutrements with 
him. Very soon after, a scouting party of the regiment re- 
turning from Aldie were attacked in rear by Mosby's men. 
Making a counter-charge, the soldiers recognized the renegade 
among the enemy. A rush was made for him, and he was 
run down and taken. Colonel Lowell at once summoned a 
"drumhead court-martial," which sat all night, and con- 
demned the man to be shot at ten o'clock the next morning. 
It was done with all the attendant circumstances usual at mili- 
tary executions, to make the incident an impressive one to the 
brigade. The regiments were drawn up, forming three sides of 
a hollow square on the drill-ground, and the prisoner, guarded, 
and accompanied by the chaplain, and preceded by his coffin 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 451 

and the firing-party, was marched slowly, to solemn military 
music, around the inside of the square, so that each man could 
see his face, and then shot. 

It not being warranted by the Army Regulations for a 
subordinate officer to call a "Drumhead Court-martial" and 
execute its sentence, except in case of emergency, when too 
far away to communicate with his superiors, and Colonel 
Lowell being in daily communication with headquarters at 
Washington, he expected, on reporting the matter that after- 
noon, to receive at least a severe reprimand. On the con- 
trary, no mention was made of it at all. The fact probably 
was that General Augur, and Mr. Stanton, who would natu- 
rally be consulted in such a case, were both pleased at Colonel 
Lowell's action, for if the case had been referred to Washing- 
ton, the President would probably have pardoned the man, 
who was young and infatuated of a Southern girl ; but they 
could not commend Colonel Lowell for going beyond the 
authority of the regulations, therefore deemed silence the best 
means of expressing their approval. 

Feb. 20. A severe disaster befell the regiment. A large 
party, under Captain Read of California, a much valued officer, 
on their return from a two-days scout, were ambuscaded and 
routed by Mosby, the captain and nine men v\^ere killed, many 
were wounded, and two officers and fifty-five men were taken, 
— more than half the command. 

March 8. The First Battalion ordered to relieve the Second 
Battalion in Maryland, the latter rejoined the regiment. Sev- 
eral officers of the Second Massachusetts were commissioned 
in the Fourth and Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry — a serious loss to 
the regiment. 

April 8. Colonel Lowell returned and resumed command 



452 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

of the Brigade, and, soon after, three expeditions were made 
into the neighbouring counties, resulting in the capture of 
thirty-five officers and men of Mosby's command, and of 
twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of cotton, wool, blockade- 
run goods, and Mosby's papers were found in one of his hiding- 
places. 

April 18. Major Forbes brought in six prisoners, taken 
when on the point of burning some bridges. 

April 19. Colonel Lowell reports to Washington on the 
enemy's forces and the amount of corn in Loudoun County, 
and brings in eleven prisoners. 

April 23. Colonel Lowell reports an attack on his pick- 
ets. His truthfulness in giving evidence, even against his 
command, and his absence of all brag, make all his reports 
remarkable, in contrast to many others of officers on both 
sides. 

April 26. General Tyler writes to General Augur, now 
commanding the Department, about some expedition about 
to start from Washington : '* With Colonel Lowell in com- 
mand of the cavalry, I have no fear of trouble. ' ' 

Early in May, the regiment furnished a patrol for the 
Orange and Alexandria R. R. 

May 18. Major Forbes conducted a successful night expe- 
dition to Rectortown with two hundred men, and returned 
with ten guerrillas and thirty horses. 

June. Early in the month, a large part of the regiment 
went with ambulances, to help bring in the wounded left in 
the Wilderness after the battle. 

July 6. The regiment suffered another severe disaster, 
largely due, like that of Captain Read, to the party's being 
ordered to remain out for a considerable time, visiting certain 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 453 

towns, which allowed time for the hostile inhabitants to send 
word to Mosby of the exact number of men in the command, 
and to direct him where to find them . Colonel Lowell reported 
that he had sent Major Forbes, with one hundred and fifty men, 
on a three-days scout towards the gaps in the Blue Ridge, with 
orders to visit Leesburg on two days. Major Forbes found 
all quiet, and on the second day learned that Mosby was 
absent on a raid north of the Potomac; next day he returned 
to Leesburg, found all quiet, and, in accordance with his orders, 
began his return march towards Vienna. Meanwhile Mosby, 
returning from his raid, had been notified of the strength and 
probable whereabouts of the command, and with a force of two 
hundred men or more, and a gun, came suddenly upon them at 
Zion's Church, near Aldie, and opened fire with his gun. The 
result was a victory for the Partisan force, who killed forty 
men of the Second Massachusetts and Thirteenth New York 
Cavalry, wounded many, and took about one hundred horses. 
From the accounts of officers there engaged, I add the 
following. While Major Forbes was feeding and resting his 
command in a field on the edge of some woods, his vedettes 
brought in word of Mosby' s force being close at hand. He 
had hastily mounted and formed his squadrons, when the large 
guerrilla force appeared before them and sent a shell among 
them. This was an absolutely novel experience to men and 
horses, who till then had never faced artillery, and made them 
very unsteady, especially the new squadrons. The obvious 
and necessary move was an instant charge with the sabre, but 
a stiff fence before them rendered this impracticable without 
moving the command. The first squadron behaved well as 
long as they faced the enemy, but the moment Major Forbes 
gave the order " Fours right," to shift to a possible charging 



454 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

ground, the spell was broken, and the men began to break 
away from the rear. Mosby's men, who had taken down a 
panel or two of the fence meantime, under cover of the gun, 
**got the yell " on their opponents, rushed in on their flank 
with the revolver, and, in spite of efforts of their officers to 
rally them, the greater part of the command fled. Many 
were shot in close pursuit. Major Forbes, with a few of the 
best soldiers, charged and fought gallantly, but these were 
overpowered or killed. The major ran his sabre into the 
shoulder of a Captain Richards, and it flew from his hands. 
At that moment Colonel Mosby shot at him at close range, 
but the ball fortunately was stopped by the head of his horse 
thrown up at that minute. The horse fell dead, pinioning 
Major Forbes to the ground, and helpless, with half a dozen 
pistols at his temples, he had to surrender. Lieutenant Amory 
was taken with him. They were at once robbed of part of 
their clothing and their boots, but when their captors under- 
took to search Major Forbes' s pockets, he is reported to have 
said they might have his brains, but he meant to keep what 
money he had, and ordered them to carry him to their officers. 
Some one of these prevented any further outrage, but the 
officers had to walk "stocking foot" on the first day's march 
towards a Southern prison. 

Years after. Colonel Mosby, in a newspaper article, said: 
'* One of the regiments I most frequently encountered was 
from about Boston, the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, Colonel 
Lowell. I once met a detachment of it under command of a 
Major Forbes of Boston, and although our encounter resulted 
in his overthrow, he bore himself with conspicuous gallantry, 
and I saw him wound one of my best men with his sabre." 

The day after the fight. Rev. Charles A. Humphreys, 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 455 

the chaplain of the Second Cavalry, who was with the ex- 
pedition and had bravely stayed by a mortally wounded private 
until his death, was, while burying the body, in spite of his 
cloth, captured and robbed by a young guerrilla, and sent to 
join Forbes and Amory in prison. 

Page J16, note j. These were the newly invented repeat- 
ing breech-loading Spencer carbines, firing seven shots. They 
were the first repeating carbines in use, and greatly increased 
the effectiveness of cavalry for dismounted service. This was 
proved soon after for Colonel Lowell's command, as is later 
told, at the fight at Rockville. 

Page J22, note i. On July 6th, General Early, arriving by 
the usual back door of the Shenandoah, crossed the Potomac, 
and soon after took Frederick, the second city in importance 
of Maryland. After defeating the small force of General Lew 
Wallace, he pushed on towards Washington, on July 1 1 th. 
The day before, Lowell, ordered by General Augur to send 
one regiment of his brigade to the defence of Washington, 
sent the Second Massachusetts, and obtained leave to go with 
it. At 6.30 A.M. on the i ith. Colonel Lowell, now in com- 
mand of all the available cavalry, began skirmishing, and caused 
the enemy's advance to fall back several miles, to their reserves, 
which in turn forced his command back to the infantry picket 
lines before Tennallytown, a suburb of Washington. 

July 12. Colonel Lowell reported that, with three com- 
panies dismounted, he had turned the enemy's right flank and 
driven them back about one and a half miles, while Lieutenant- 
Colonel Crowninshield drove them one mile on the Rockville 
pike. 

July 1 3 . Early found Washington well defended by the 
Sixth and Nineteenth Army Corps, just arrived to the rescue. 



456 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

and began his retreat through Rockville, Md. He was followed 
up closely by the cavalry. Colonel Lowell, through the morning 
and up to z.io p.m., sends to headquarters frequent detailed 
reports of the enemy. At 2.30 he reports: "My despatch 
was here interrupted by the report of a large number of rebels 
being met just through the town [Rockville] by my advance- 
guard [part of Second Massachusetts under Crowninshield] , 
who charged at once. My advance was then dismounted and, 
after a sharp skirmish there, checked a good strong charge of 
the rebels, after being driven nearly through the town by them. 
[This was his own brilliant saving of the day described in the 
biographical sketch.] We fell back to the edge of the town 
and established a strong dismounted skirmish line, holding them. 
Learning they were endeavouring to flank us, I retired to a 
situation two miles from Rockville, slowly. My regiment in 
the town, I fear, was mostly enveloped by the enemy, and are 
very severely whipped. ' ' Nevertheless, Lowell's men repulsed 
four charges in Rockville, and next day a great many of his 
*' missing " rejoined the command. 

Brigadier- General Hardin, U.S.A., in command in that 
part of the defences, reported in his despatches, ** the informa- 
tion given by Colonel Lowell was always reliable." Colonel 
Warner, commanding the First Brigade in the defences, in his 
reports gives Lowell high praise for intelligent activity. 

The Second Massachusetts Cavalry, with provisional bat- 
talions, all under Lowell, accompanied the Sixth Corps, pur- 
suing Early across the Potomac and through the Blue Ridge 
gaps to beyond the Shenandoah River. General Wright of this 
corps had, by General Grant's advice, been given command 
in this repulse of Early. The regiment, with its colonel, now 
went back to their camp at Falls Church, July 23d. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 457 

Page 322, note 2. July 26, Colonel Lowell was now re- 
leased from his service against guerrillas, by an order to report 
with his regiment to General Wright in the Shenandoah Val- 
ley. They did duty with the Sixth Corps until August 9th, 
when General Sheridan was given command of the new de- 
partment, and gave Lowell the •* Provisional Brigade." 

After the regiment took the field, of course Mrs. Lowell 
could no longer stay with her husband, so returned to her 
parents in Staten Island, and never saw him in life again. 

Page 324, note i. Just after Early had been driven to 
Fisher's Hill, his strong reenforcement from Richmond, mak- 
ing him greatly outnumber Sheridan, forced the latter in turn 
to retire down the Valley to a defensible position. 

As to the harsh measure of wasting the Valley, Sheridan had 
no choice. Grant's commands were, in order "that nothing 
should be left to invite the enemy to return, take all provisions, 
forage, and stock wanted for the use of your command. Such 
as cannot be consumed, destroy. It is not desirable that build- 
ings should be destroyed — they should, rather, be protected; 
but the people should be informed that, so long as an army 
can subsist among them, recurrences of these raids must be 
expected, and we are determined to stop them at all hazards. " 
As for Loudoun County, a scene of Mosby's constant raids. 
General Grant said : " Carry off the crops, animals, negroes 
[to prevent further planting], and all men over fifteen years 
of age capable of bearing arms. In this way you will get 
many of Mosby's men. All male citizens under fifty can 
fairly be held as prisoners of war, not as citizen-prisoners. If 
not already soldiers, they will be made so the moment the 
rebel army gets hold of them." 

Sheridan issued orders firm and explicit, but as merciful as 



458 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

might be, in obeying the command of his superior. In his 
autobiography, he says of Grant : " He had rightly con- 
cluded that it was time to bring the war home to a people 
engaged in raising crops, from a prolific soil, to feed their 
Country's enemies, and devoting to the Confederacy its best 
youth. . . . The meat and grain that the Valley provided, 
and the men it furnished for Lee's depleted regiments, were 
the strongest auxiliaries he possessed in the whole insurgent 
section. ... I do not hold war to mean simply that lines 
of men shall engage each other in battle, and material inter- 
ests be ignored. This is but a duel, in which one combatant 
seeks the other's life. Those who rest at home in peace and 
plenty see but little of the horrors of such a duel, and even 
grow indiiferent to them as the struggle goes on, contenting 
themselves with encouraging all who are able-bodied to enlist 
in the cause, to fill up the shattered ranks as death thins them. 
. . . Reduction to poverty brings prayers for peace more 
surely and more quickly than does the destruction of human 
life, as the selfishness of man has demonstrated in more than 
one great conflict." 

Page 325, note i. In what was said above, Lowell proba- 
bly did not mean to criticise General Torbert for his tenacity. 
Also, he had not yet found out General Sheridan's quality, 
who had fallen back to Halltown as the only good defensible 
position in the lower Valley against superior numbers. Early 
did not get into Maryland, though Sheridan told Grant he 
purposely left the door open for him, hoping to divide his 
forces, and thus defeat him. 

Page 326, note I . Ruksh and Berold were fine horses, 
both of a bright sorrel, Ruksh very tall and with a look of 
distinction. See the pictures and his wife mounted. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 459 

** And Ruksh, his horse. 
Followed him like a faithful hound at heel. 
Ruksh, whose renown was noised through all the earth. 
The horse which Rustum, in a foray once. 
Did in Bokhara by the river find, 
A colt beneath his dam, and drove him home 
And reared him; a bright bay with lofty crest, 
Dight with a saddle-cloth of broidered green 
Crusted with gold." 

" Sohrab and Rustum," Matthew Arnold. 

Mrs. Lowell, during her life in camp, rode Berold, and kept 
him, later, in peaceful fields, until his death many years after 
the war. 

Billy was the favourite horse of Colonel Lowell's friend 
and most trusted major, William H. Forbes, then in prison 
at Columbia. Dick also belonged to him, but his father had 
given Colonel Lowell permission to use them if necessary. 

The unnamed action, so destructive to the colonel's mounts, 
— risks to the rider, who ignores them, can be imagined, — 
was on August 22. 

General Torbert, in his report, says that on that day a rapid 
advance of the enemy, with strong infantry skirmishers, was 
held in check by General Duffie's West Virginian Cavalry and 
Lowell's brigade of the First Division and part of Wilson's 
Second Division, until the First Division could withdraw to- 
wards Shepherdstown, and the trains get to the rear. 

Page J26, note 2. Just before Lowell was called to take 
charge of the Mt. Savage iron-works, he had bought a farm 
in Dixon, Illinois. Mr. Perkins succeeded in selling it for him. 

Page 321, note i. Atlanta was a gift from Mr. Forbes. 



46o NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Page 330, note l. In the first part of the war, it was held 
that the day of charging infantry with cavah-y had ended with 
the introduction of the rifle. But by 1864 this was some- 
times done with effect ; moreover the cavalry, with excellent 
carbines, constantly skirmished on foot. Lowell evidently made 
a mistake of one day in dating this letter. It should have 
been August 27, for on August 25 Torbert reported that his 
cavalry met Confederate cavalry in a wood near Leetown. 
From all the information he could get, there appeared to be 
only cavalry in his front. He at once made dispositions to at- 
tack. '* Soon after the attack was made, it was found that we 
were fighting infantry, a division of Breckenridge's corps on 
the march. . . . The attack was so sudden and vigorous, the 
division was thrown in complete confusion and back three 
quarters of a mile. The enemy lost 250 killed and wounded, 
together with one brigade commander." Torbert then fell 
back, followed by enemy's infantry and artillery, to his position. 
Sheridan reported : *' This evening General Crook made a 
dash and drove in their heavy line of skirmishers. . . . 
Colonel Lowell took advantage of it to make a cavalry charge, 
capturing 7 officers and 69 privates of Kershaw's division." 

Page 330, note 2. August 28, Torbert reports that Mer- 
ritt's Division (Lowell's was Third Brigade) moved out to- 
wards Leetown, met enemy's cavalry in force, and gallantly 
drove them with the sabre through Smithfield and across the 
Opequan, a distance of five miles. 

Page 331, note i. George William Curtis. 

Page 33Jy note i. The reorganization of General Mer- 
ritt's Division was as follows: First Brigade, Brigadier-General 
Custer; Second Brigade, Brigadier-General Devin; Reserve 
Brigade, Colonel Lowell. The Reserve Brigade consisted of 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 461 

the First, Second, and Fifth United States Cavalry and the 
Second Massachusetts Cavalry; also Battery D (horse artil- 
lery) of the Second United States Artillery. 

Page 337, note 2. The negro " contrabands " called their 
far-off benefactor " Massa Linkum," and the Union Army the 
*♦ Linkum soldiers." 

Page 33g, note i. " If the regiment was taken from him*^ 
(;. e. General Augur), means from the Department of Wash- 
ington, which Augur commanded. 

Page 343, note i. Colonel Lowell only permitted himself 
to criticise the Administration — always within bounds — to 
one or two of his closest friends. One of these, Mr. Forbes, 
he believed able to influence the Government in favour of 
special acts or general policies that seemed wise, honourable, 
and just, and hence necessary. Lowell's temperament was 
very different from Lincoln's, — he could not have waited for 
the slow growth of public opinion, — and, moreover, he judged 
him by such imperfect information as was accessible. He did 
not, like us, see him from afar, his work successfully done 
and crowned with his halo. 

Page 343, note 2. This is a statement of Colonel Lowell's 
momentary feeling. He was then twenty-nine years old. 

Page 344, note i. The brilliant career of General Barlow 
was well sketched by Mr. Forbes, in a letter to a friend, 
written May 30, 1862, just after Barlow's wounding in the 
Wilderness Campaign: "You, out West, may not know 
about Barlow. Graduating high at Harvard some four or five 
years since [Mr. Forbes was mistaken; Barlow graduated in 
1855], he entered one of the New York regiments either as 
a private or in some subordinate capacity; rose to be Colonel, 
led his regiment gallantly in the Peninsula and the great battle 



462 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

of Antietam. While lying on the field, supposed mortally- 
wounded, he received his commission as Brigadier for his ser- 
vices on the Peninsula. Barely recovered from his wounds, he 
served at Fredericksburg, and again fell at Gettysburg, shot 
in several places, and pronounced by the Faculty fatally shot. 
He laughed at their predictions; his strong will prevailed, even 
under the disadvantage of a feeble frame, and he slowly re- 
covered to be just able to head a Division in the late battles, 
under Hancock. He led the attack on the * Salient ' [Spott- 
sylvania] , when Johnston and his Brigade were captured. . . . 

" From his slight frame and youthful appearance, he is 
often called the * boy- General,' though there is about as much 
man to him as to any one I know ; and, moreover, he is one 
of the few men who have achieved distinction without coming 
through the portals of West Point, or of politics. It is said 
Hancock or Meade recommended him for a Major-General's 
commission the day after that assault, the credit for which 
Hancock distinctly gives him." 

General Barlow survived the war some thirty years, and 
practised law with distinction in New York. He married 
Mrs. Lowell's younger sister. 

General Francis A. Walker, in his History of the Second 
Corps, tells the story of Colonel Barlow's masterly and suc- 
cessful tactics with his brigade at a dark moment at Antietam, 
and also of his desperately successful capture of the SaUent at 
Spottsylvania. Another officer who served with him on both 
these fields, Lieutenant-General Miles, said, " Under the 
most depressing circumstances, he never was without hope and 
fortitude. He was apparently utterly devoid of the sensation 
of fear, constantly aggressive, and intensely earnest in the dis- 
charge of all duties. His integrity of purpose, independence 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 463 

of character, and sterling honesty in the assertion of what he 
believed to be right and just, made him a marked man among 
public men. He abhorred a coward; had a perfect contempt 
for a demagogue, and despised a hypocrite. He believed in 
the administration of public affairs with the most rigid integrity, 
and did not hesitate to denounce wrong as he believed it to 
exist, and maintain what he believed to be right under all cir- 
cumstances." The same qualities shone out in time of peace. 
In his short term as United States Marshal in New York he is 
said to have cleaned out a nest of corruption, and, given spe- 
cial powers by President Grant, he broke up by force a large 
filibustering expedition about to sail for Cuba, thus averting 
a war with Spain. As Attorney-General of New York, he 
officially instituted most of the legal proceedings ending in the 
im.peachment of corrupt judges. Hon. Charles S. Fairchild 
said of him, "The State owes General Barlow more than she 
does any single man for results, without which the life of any 
honest man would have been intolerable in this State."' 

Page 345, note i. Dr. De Wolf, then acting as brigade 
surgeon, occupied the same tent with the colonel. Some 
years after the war, he became the head of the Board of 
Health of Chicago. 

Page 34.8, note i. Lowell, with his three Regular regiments 
and a battalion of the Second Massachusetts, did admirable 
service, however. On hearing certain news of the withdrawal 
of Kershaw's force from the Valley, Sheridan, given carte 
blanche by Grant, moved instantly on Early's somewhat 
scattered command, and the Battle of the Opequan resulted. 
Torbert reported that Merritt's division, on the right, fording 

' See an admirable sketch of Barlow's life, in the Har-varJ Graduates' 
Magazine for June, 1896, by Edwin H. Abbot. 



464 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

that creek at daylight, "was opposed by the rebel infantry ; 
but the cavalry gallantly charged across the creek and drove 
them . . . about a mile and a half . . . where the in- 
fantry held the cavalry in check for some time, they being 
posted behind stone walls and rail breastworks ; but General 
Averell, farther to the right turned the flank of this infantry 
and caused them to fall back." Merritt advanced again, and 
these two commands drove the infantry and cavalry before 
them (part of Breckenridge's command) towards Winchester. 
They endeavoured to make a stand. What followed is thus 
described by General Sheridan : — 

** The ground which Breckenridge was holding was open, 
and offered an opportunity such as seldom has been presented 
during the war for a mounted attack, and Torbert was not 
slow to take advantage of it. The instant Merritt' s division 
could be formed for the charge, it went at Breckenridge' s 
infantry and Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry, with such momentum as 
to break the Confederate left just as Averell was passing around 
it. Merritt' s brigades, led by Custer, Lowell, and Devin, 
met from the start with pronounced success, and, with sabre 
and pistol in hand, literally rode down a battery of five guns 
and took about 1 200 prisoners." At the same time. Crook and 
Wright forced the rebel infantry so hard, that the whole Con- 
federate Army fell back to breastworks formerly thrown up 
before Winchester. Here Early strove hard to stem the tide, 
but soon Torbert' s cavalry began to pass around his left flank, 
and the infantry made a front attack. A panic ensued. The 
result was that Sheridan, after the supplementary routing of 
Early's army two days later at Fisher's Hill (in which Tor- 
bert's cavalry had no part), regained the Valley from the 
Potomac to Strasburg. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 465 

The unhappy General Early wrote as follows, to General 
Lee, after this defeat : — 

" The enemy's immense superiority in cavalry, and the 
inefficiency of the greater part of mine, has been the cause of 
all my disasters. In the aiFair at Fisher's Hill the cavalry gave 
way, but it was flanked. This would have been remedied if 
the troops had remained steady, but a panic seized them at the 
idea of being flanked, and without being defeated they broke, 
many of them fleeing shamefully. . . . My troops are very 
much shattered, the men very much exhausted, and many 
of them without shoes." 

Page J4p, note i. General Sheridan had sent Torbert, 
with most of his cavalry, up the Luray Valley, just before the 
infantry of General Crook flanked and dislodged Early's army 
from the mountains at Fisher's Hill. He thus expected to cut 
off the Confederate retreat, and make an end of that army. 
In his Life, he expresses great disappointment with Torbert 
on that occasion, as he was held in check by Wickham's 
Cavalry until after Early got off with the remains of his 
force. 

Page 3^2, note I. On September 26, Wilson's division and 
Lowell's brigade of the First Division had moved towards 
Staunton, and made large captures there of arms, equipments, 
and stores; next day they went to Waynesboro', and, on 
the 28th, destroyed the railroad bridge over the South Fork of 
the Shenandoah. In the afternoon they were attacked, and, 
to avoid being cut off, retired on the main army. September 
29, Colonel Lowell was ordered, with his command, to rejoin 
his division at Cross Keys. 

Page 3S3, note i. General Sheridan, in a despatch to 
General Grant, said, ** Lieutenant John R. Meigs, my engi- 



466 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

neer officer, was murdered beyond Harrisburg. . . . For this 
atrocious act, all the houses within an area of five miles were 
burned. Since I came into the Valley from Harper's Ferry, 
every train, every small party, and every straggler has been 
bushwhacked by people, many of whom have protection- 
papers from commanders who have been hitherto in that Val- 
ley." It was asserted at the time that the murderer was dis- 
guised in the United States uniform. Mr. George E. Pond, 
associate editor of the Army and Navy Journal, in his book 
on the Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley (1883), says, 
** It was ascertained, after the war, that this gallant youth 
[Lieutenant Meigs] , a soldier of brilUant gifts and promise, 
the son of the Quartermaster-General, fell at the hands of an 
enlisted Confederate soldier of Wickham's brigade, engaged 
in scouting." 

Page 3^4, note i. In 1864, the evils of guerrilla warfare 
rose to high-water mark. The sure demoralization which 
such a system wrought in those engaged in it, reached such a 
pitch that even the Confederate authorities could not ignore it. 
Matters worked in a vicious circle. Murderous marauding 
drove the Union commanders to devastating the places known 
to harbour these men. The devastation naturally enraged the 
inhabitants, and led them even to private bushwhacking. In 
the late autumn of 1864, bitter retaliations began on both 
sides. As early as January, 1864, the Confederate General 
Rosser, who had had opportunity while serving in the Valley 
.to judge the value of " irregular bodies of troops known as 
partisans," etc., wrote to General Lee: "I am prompted 
by no other feeling than a desire to serve my country, to inform 
you that they are a nuisance and an evil to the service. With- 
out discipline, order, or organization, they roam broadcast over 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 467 

the country, — a band of thieves, stealing, pillaging, plun- 
dering, and doing every manner of mischief and crime. They 
are a terror to the citizens and an injury to the cause. ' ' 

He gives the following reasons for his protest : that it keeps 
men on this service away ** from the field of battle, when the 
life or death of our country is the issue;" that their latitude 
and many privileges cause dissatisfaction among the regular 
troops; this encourages desertion. 

He says he finds it almost impossible to manage the com- 
panies of his brigade that come from the region occupied by 
Mosby. " They see these men living at their ease and enjoy- 
ing the comforts of home, allowed to possess all that they 
capture, and their duties mere pastime pleasures compared 
with their own arduous ones ; and it is a natural consequence 
in the nature of man that he should become dissatisfied under 
these circumstances." He recommends abolishing this "par- 
tisan" service, with its privileges. "If it is necessary for 
troops to operate within the lines of the enemy, then require the 
commanding officer to keep them in an organized condition, to 
rendezvous within our lines, and move upon the enemy when 
opportunity is offered. 

*' Major Mosby is of inestimable service to the Yankee 
army, in keeping their men from straggling. He is a gal- 
lant officer, and is one that I have great respect for ; yet the 
interest I feel in my own command and the good of the ser- 
vice coerces me to bring this matter before you, in order that 
this partisan system, which I think is a bad one, may be cor- 
rected. ' ' General Rosser says that General Early and General 
Fitzhugh Lee can testify to these evils. 

On General Rosser' s communication. General J. E. B. 
Stuart, the friend and admirer of Mosby, indorses : " Major 



468 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Mosby's command is the only efEcient band of rangers I know 
of, and he usually operates with only one fourth of his nominal 
strength. Such organizations, as a rule, are detrimental to the 
best interests of the army at large." 

The above communication was referred by General Lee to 
the government at Richmond, with this comment: " As far as 
my knowledge and experience extend, there is much truth in 
the statement of General Rosser. The evils resulting from 
their organization more than counterbalance the good they 
accomplish. ' ' Miles, the chairman of the Confederate Military 
Committee, on February 14, 1864, returns this document to 
the Secretary of War, saying the House of Representatives has 
passed a bill abolishing Partisan Rangers. 

Yet, in spite of Lee's indorsement of Rosser's communica- 
tion, he wrote to the Secretary of War, C. S. A., asking that 
Mosby be made a lieutenant-colonel, and wishing to show him 
that "his services have been appreciated, and to encourage 
him to still greater activity and zeal." {^Rebellion Record, 
vol. xxxiii. ) 

In April, Lee enumerated to his government the bands of 
"partisan rangers," recommending bringing them under the 
rules and regulations of the regular cavalry, disbanding most 
of them as organizations, but keeping the men ; and adds, with 
regard to Mosby's battalion, the recommendation that, if they 
cannot be mustered into the regular service, " they be retained 
as partisans at present," expressing his belief that their dis- 
cipline and conduct is better than that of the other bands. 

Mosby's and McNeill's commands were retained as parti- 
san rangers. 

But the evil went on increasing through 1864. Two days 
after General Sheridan's report of the killing of his Lieutenant 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 469 

Meigs, he sends another: " Lieutenant- Colonel Tolles, my 
Chief Quartermaster, and Assistant Surgeon Emil Oelen- 
schlager. Medical Inspector on my Staff, were both mortally 
wounded by guerrillas to-day, on their way to join me from 
Winchester. . . . The refugees from Early's army, cavalry 
and infantry, are organizing guerrilla parties, and are becoming 
very formidable. ... I know of no way to exterminate them 
except to bum out the whole country, and let the people go 
North or South." 

Yet, bushwhacking aside, Mosby had done great military 
service to the Confederacy — to quote his own words as to 
his kind of warfare — *'by the heavy details it compels the 
enemy to make in order to guard his communications, and, 
to that extent, diminish his aggressive strength." In August, 
when Sheridan with his army had gone up the Valley, Mosby 
with a small force made a dash upon one of his supply-trains 
proceeding to the front, dispersed a large force of ** hundred- 
days men," and ran off three hundred and fifty mules, and 
burned the wagons and what spoil they could not carry off. 
In October, Colonel Stevenson wrote to Secretary Stanton, that 
a supply-train of five hundred and sixty-one wagons, which he 
was despatching to Sheridan's army, would have a guard of 
two thousand men " unless this should be too few." 

Throughout the campaign. Early was most anxious to keep 
the rail communications of the Union Army broken, and 
Mosby harassed the working parties that tried to keep them 
open. Major John Scott, in his Partisan Life with Mosby, 
gives the following edifying anecdote. It should be remem- 
bered that these trains were used by the local inhabitants : 
** Knowing that the only way to prevent the progress of the 
work on the road was to keep the force stirred up from below. 



470 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

on the 9th of October he (Mosby) sent a detachment under 
a lieutenant to throw off the track a train of cars, as it passed 
between Salem and the Plains. This duty was successfully 
performed, and many on board were killed and many severely 
wounded. In retaliation, the Yankees resorted to the inhuman 
experiment of arresting prominent citizens of the Southern 
type residing in Fauquier and Alexandria, and making them 
ride on every train which ran on the Manassas Gap Railroad. 
In addition, some of the captured prisoners were sent along. 
But, with the spirit of an old Roman, Mosby declared, * If 
my wife and children were on board, I would still throw off 
the cars,' " 

Page 355, note i. October 8. The Reserve Brigade was 
sent back to reconnoitre, and met a superior force of Rebel 
cavalry. The Second Brigade (Devin's) was sent to reen- 
fbrce Lowell, who attacked. There was a hard fight till dark, 
with some loss. 

This annoyance of his rear by General Rosser, who had 
been eagerly looked for to deliver the Valley from the Yan- 
kees, caused Sheridan, that night, to order his chief of cav- 
alry, Torbert, to go in and whip Rosser next morning, or get 
whipped himself. 

Page 356, note i. Sheridan, who witnessed the spectacle 
from a hill, thus describes the Battle of Tom's Brook, nick- 
named " Woodstock Races " : — 

** Oct. 9th. About 7 in the morning, Custer's division 
encountered Rosser himself with three brigades, and while 
the stirring sounds of the resulting artillery duel were rever- 
berating through the valley, Merritt moved briskly to the 
front, and fell upon Generals Lomax and Johnson on the Val- 
ley pike. . . . The two divisions moved forward together. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 471 

under Torbert's direction. . . . The engagement soon be- 
came general across the Valley, both sides lighting mainly 
mounted. For about two hours the contending lines struggled 
with each other along Tom's Brook, the charges and counter- 
charges at many points being plainly visible from . . . Round 
Top, where I had my headquarters. The open country per- 
mitting a sabre fight, both sides seemed bent on using that 
arm. In the centre, the Confederates maintained their posi- 
tion with much stubbornness, . . . but at last they began to 
give way on both flanks, and, as these receded, Merritt and 
Custer went at the wavering ranks in a charge along their 
whole front. The result was a general smash-up of the entire 
Confederate line, the retreat quickly degenerating into a rout. 
. . . For twenty-six miles this wild stampede kept up, with 
our troopers close to the enemy's heels." 

In a report to General Grant next day, Sheridan wrote : — 

** The number of prisoners captured wiU be about 330. 
The enemy, after being charged by our gallant cavalry, were 
broken, and ran. They were followed by our men on the jump 
twenty-six miles, through Mount Jackson and across the North 
Fork of the Shenandoah." 

And on the i ith of October he wrote again, from Cedar 
Creek: — 

"I have seen no signs of the enemy since the brilliant en- 
gagement of the 9th instant. It was a square cavalry fight, in 
which the enemy was routed beyond my power to describe. 
He lost everything carried on wheels, except one piece of 
artillery ; and when last seen, // was passing over Rude's Hill, 
near New Market, on the keen run, twenty-six miles from the 
battlefield, to which point the pursuit was kept up." 

General Torbert, in his report, spoke of this cavalry fight 



472 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

and victory as *♦ the most decisive the country has ever wit- 
nessed. Brigadier-Generals Merritt and Custer, and Colonels 
Lowell and Pennington, commanding brigades, particularly 
distinguished themselves ; in fact, no men could have rendered 
more valuable services and deserve higher honour from the 
hands of the Government. My losses will not exceed 60 
killed and wounded, which is astonishing, compared with the 
results. ' ' 

General Early, who had not failed in courage or persistency, 
reported to Lee his new defeat : — 

♦'This is very distressing to me, and God knows I have 
done all in my power to avert the disasters which have be- 
fallen this command ; but the fact is, that the enemy's cavalry 
is so much superior to ours, both in numbers and equipment, 
and the country is so favourable to the operations of cavalry, 
that it is impossible for ours to compete with his. Lomax's 
cavalry is armed entirely with rifles, and has no sabres ; and 
the consequence is, that they cannot fight on horseback, and, 
in this open country, they cannot successfully fight on foot 
against large bodies of cavalry : besides, the command has 
been demoralized all the time. It would be better if they 
could be all put in the infantry; but, if that were tried, I am , 
afraid they would all run off." 

The Southerners, as a rule, did not believe in the sabre. 
Mosby ridicules it ; and, indeed, for his kind of work, the 
revolver and carbine sufficed. But in the Valley, the furious 
combined rush of horses ridden by men, with three feet of 
bright steel, at close quarters, seems often to have been very 
effective. 

Page J^S, note i. " Guvveys " means the common cav- 
alry boots, which the Government furnishes to enlisted men. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 473 

Page 3Sgy note i. The meaning of this attack was that the 
Confederates supposed that a great part of Sheridan's force had 
been now withdrawn to help Grant before Richmond, and 
Sheridan's troops, returning from the pursuit of Early, found 
themselves, on October 13, followed up to Fisher's Hill. 
Sheridan, who had been summoned to Washington to consult 
with' Stanton on future movements, before the latter should visit 
Grant, was just setting out, when this movement made him 
pause and put his army in battle array along Cedar Creek. 
As he was getting ready to attack, he found that Early, hav- 
ing discovered that he was still In flill force, had again with- 
drawn. Sheridan then went to Washington, leaving General 
Wright in charge of the army. 

Page Jj'p, note 2. Perhaps Mrs. Lowell thought that be- 
fore her shoulder-straps — the silver eagles on yellow ground 
of a cavalry colonel — were finished, her husband would be 
entitled to the single star of a brigadier-general. For more 
than a year he had borne the responsibility and done the work 
of one. 

Page 360, note i. George Duncan Wells, a faithful and 
gallant Massachusetts soldier. He graduated at Williams Col- 
lege, 1846, and at the Harvard Law School, 1848, and 
practised law until the outbreak of the war. As Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the First Massachusetts Infantry, he served at Bull 
Run and in the Peninsular Campaign. In July, 1862, he was 
commissioned Colonel of the Thirty-Fourth Massachusetts 
Regiment, and served in Western Virginia. In July, 1863, he 
commanded a brigade with General Naglee, with credit. Next 
year, in the Shenandoah Campaign, he commanded the First 
Brigade, in General Crook's First Division, and did good ser- 
vice in many fights in the Valley. He received the personal 



474 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

congratulations of General Sheridan, on the field of battle at 
Winchester (Opequan). On October i z, 1 864, he was mor- 
tally wounded, and died next day, in the hands of the enemy. 
His commission as Brevet Brigadier- General dated from the 
day of his last fight. 

Page 361, note i. The explanation of the sudden march 
to Front Royal and the recall was this. Sheridan had reached 
that point on his way to Washington, when General Wright 
sent in haste to tell him that he had read the enemy's signal- 
flag on their mountain station, thus : — 

** To Lieut.-Gen. Early: — Be ready to move as soon 
as my forces join you, and we will crush Sheridan. 

' * LoNGSTREET, Lieut. - General. ' ' 

Sheridan hesitated whether to return ; but his presence in 
Washington was urgently desired by Secretary Stanton, and 
there had been many false rumours about Longstreet's coming 
[this proved to be one, probably a trick to keep Sheridan 
from detaching forces to help Grant] , so he wrote back to 
Wright : — 

"General, — The cavalry is all ordered back to you. 
Make your position strong. If Longstreet's despatch is true, 
he is under the impression that we have largely detached. I 
will go over to Augur, and may get additional news. ... If 
the enemy make an advance, I know you will defeat him. 
Look well to your ground, and be well prepared. Get up 
everything that can be spared. I will bring up all I can, and 
will be up on Tuesday, if not sooner." 

This message was sent Sunday, October 16. 

It may seem strange that Early should advance so soon 
after utter defeat ; but Lee had sent five thousand good troops 
to him and all the local reserves, and called on him for great 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 475 

efforts. Early was a brave man, and matters were getting 
desperate. Also the forage of the country had been de- 
stroyed, so he must either leave it or supply himself from 
the enemy. 

Page 362, note i. Excepting the few words of farewell to 
his wife, written in the last hours of his life, the three following 
letters, written on the same day, with which this volume closes, 
were the last which Colonel Lowell ever wrote. Two days 
later, the bullets, among which for three months he had ridden 
unheeding, doing his duty to the uttermost, cut short his life. 
Had Lowell lived through that day, it seems probable that he 
would have survived the war. The victory of October 1 9 at 
Cedar Creek virtually ended the Valley Campaign, and put an 
end to the dangerous service for the cavalry, except for the 
short period in spring, ending in Lee's surrender. Moreover, 
Lowell's commission as Brigadier-General, signed the day of 
his death, Sheridan intended to follow by making him his Chief 
of Cavalry, a position in which he would have been less ex- 
posed. 

Page 36^, note l. General Sheridan had travelled by 
night, reached Washington on the morning of the 17th, had 
his interview with the powers there, and left at noon, reach- 
ing Martinsburg at night by rail. On the i8th, he rode 
twenty-eight miles to Winchester, where, hearing by cou- 
rier from General Wright that all was quiet at his camp, he 
spent the night. Next morning, he planned to make some 
examinations with regard to repairing the Manassas Gap Rail- 
road, with two engineer officers sent with him from Wash- 
ington. 

Meantime, let us see what was going on at Cedar Creek. 
From the abrupt mountain Three Top, close by Early*s army. 



476 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

the camp of Sheridan's army, the division of the forces and 
guns, the river and creek, the fords and roads, could be plainly 
seen in bird's-eye view. Early saw that the Union left flank 
was less strongly guarded, as the covmtry was more difficult 
than on their right, and yet was accessible to his infantry. He 
determined to flank it, and take the camp there in reverse 
by surprise before daylight, and sent Gordon on that errand, 
while his cavalry was to demonstrate on the left, and he, with 
Kershaw and Wharton and his artillery, attack simultaneously 
in front. He even hoped the master-stroke of capturing 
Sheridan (of whose absence he did not know), by the rush 
of his flanking party around his headquarters. I am per- 
mitted to quote the striking description of the scene before the 
battle, from Mr. George E. Pond's book. The Shenandoah 
Valley in 1864, '" Scribner's " Campaigns of the Civil 
War." 

** Stealthily, an hour after midnight, the Confederate col- 
umns moved forward. Since silence was essential to success, 
swords and canteens were left in camp, lest their clinking should 
betray the march; while the artillery was massed on the pike 
at Fisher's Hill, there to wait until the hour set for the in- 
fantry attack, when it was to move at a gallop through the 
town [Strasburg] to Hupp's Hill ; for an earlier advance might 
"betray the secret by the rumbling of the heavy wheels, in the 
dead of night, over the macadamized road. Early accom- 
panied Kershaw, his centre column, and * came in sight of 
the Union fires at 3.30 o'clock; the moon,' he adds, 'was 
now shining, and we could see the camps.' Kershaw was 
halted under cover, and while his men shivered in the chill 
night air. Early, during the hour that followed, pointed out 
precisely how and when this part of the attack should be 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 477 

made. Kershaw was to * cross his division over the creek as 
quietly as possible, and to form it into column of brigades as 
he did so, and advance in that manner against the enemy's 
left breastwork.' The scene was memorable. The Union 
camps, on the hills beyond the creek, wrapped in slumber; a 
corps of infantry, Jackson's old corps, and a brigade of cavalry, 
stealing along the base of Massanutten [Mountain] , to gain 
the rear of its unsuspecting foes; in the background, forty guns 
and more awaiting the signal to rush down the pike; an in- 
fantry division creeping over Hupps, and another crouching 
yonder nearer the creek. Before five o'clock Early ordered 
Kershaw forward again, and after a time came the welcome 
sound of a light crackle of musketry on the Confederate right, 
where Union picket-stations had been set, near the fords at 
which Gordon was crossing. This petty sound did not dis- 
turb the dreaming camps, but to the attent ears of Kershaw 
and Wharton it was the signal of attack. Kershaw quickly 
moved down to the creek ; and meanwhile, as if Nature 
had enlisted to aid this enterprise, the moon had vanished and 
a thick fog, clouding the landscape, now hid from sight the 
Confederate march." 

Sheridan, at Winchester, was considering the questions of 
the Manassas Gap Railroad with the engineers, when, at seven 
o'clock, it was reported that some artillery firing could be 
heard in the direction of Cedar Creek. This was supposed to 
be from a reconnoissance, but later the sound grew nearer, and 
the General, mounting with his staff and escort, rode rapidly 
towards his camp. The heavy cannonade of a battle became 
unmistakable, and before long he met wagons and stragglers 
in great numbers. Mr. Pond continues: ** Hastily giving or- 
ders to park the retreating trains, and to use the spare brigade 



478 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

at Winchester to form a cordon across the pike and fields, so as 
to stop the stragglers, Sheridan dashed up the pike with an 
escort of twenty men. He called to the fugitives to turn 
about and face the enemy, and, as he well phrases it, * hun- 
dreds of men, who, on reflection, found they had not done 
themselves justice, came back with cheers.' On reaching the 
army, then eleven and a half miles from Winchester, he was 
received with a tempest of joy." 

In the text of Colonel Lowell's Life, some account of the 
part played by his brigade in the action has been given. Below, 
I give extracts from General Sheridan's official report of 
the battle to General Grant, and also from the reports, to 
their respective superiors, of Generals Torbert, Merritt, and 
Devin, in which they pay tribute to the memory of Colonel 
Lowell. 

General Sheridan, at ten o'clock on the night of the battle, 
wrote : — 

" I have the honour to report that my army at Cedar Creek 
was attacked this morning before daylight, and my left was 
turned and driven in confusion : in fact, most of the line was 
driven in confusion, with the loss of twenty pieces of artillery. 
I hastened from Winchester, where I was, on my return from 
Washington, and joined the army between Middletown and 
Newtown, [it] having been driven back about four miles. 
Here I took the affair in hand, and quickly united the corps ; 
formed a compact line of battle just in time to repulse an attack 
of the enemy's, which was handsomely done, about i p. m. 
At 3 p. M., after some changes of the cavalry from the left 
to the right flank, I attacked with great vigour, driving and 
routing the enemy, capturing, according to last reports, forty- 
three pieces of artillery and very many prisoners. Wagon- 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 479 

trains, ambulances, and caissons in large numbers are in our 
possession. 

** Affairs at times looked badly, but by the gallantry of our 
brave officers and men, disaster has been converted into a 
splendid victory. Darkness again intervened, to shut off greater 
results." 

And in his second report from the battlefield, written the 
next day, he speaks of " a great victory — a victory won from 
disaster. . . . The attack on the enemy was made about 
3 p. M. by a left half- wheel of the whole line, with a division 
of cavalry turning each flank of the enemy, the whole line 
advancing. The enemy, after a stubborn resistance, broke 
and fled, and were pushed with vigour. ... At least 1600 
prisoners have been brought in, also wagons and ambulances in 
large numbers. ... I have to regret the loss of many valu- 
able officers killed and wounded, among them . . . Colonel 
C. R. Lowell, commanding Reserve Cavalry Brigade, killed." 

General Torbert, Chief of Cavalry, reports : — 

**As soon as the cavalry was in position on the left, they 
attacked the enemy. Colonel Lowell, commanding the Reserve 
Brigade, First Division, dismounted a part of his little band, 
and they advanced to a strong position behind a stone wall, 
from which the enemy's infantry failed to drive them after 
repeated attempts. About 12 m. the cavalry was moved to 
the left about 300 yards, thus bringing it to the left of the pike. 
Thus matters stood with the cavalry undl 3 p. m., holding 
on to this ground with more than their usual dogged persist- 
ence, displaying gallantry which has never been surpassed, 
while most of the infantry was reforming several miles to their 
right and rear. . . . About 2 p. m. Major-General Sheridan 



48o NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

arrived on the ground. . . . On the left, the battle was going 
well for us ; in fact, it could not be otherwise, with the cool 
and invincible Merritt on the ground, supported by such sol- 
diers as Devin and Lowell." [Sheridan had come on the 
field, and communicated with Lowell and the Sixth Corps 
commanders before noon, but probably General Torbert had 
not seen him personally. In his report he also makes a mis- 
take as to the circumstances of Colonel Lowell's first wound- 
ing, so I omit that part.] He goes on : — 

'* About 4.15 o'clock a general advance of the army was 
made, and it was truly grand to see the manner in which the 
cavalry did their part. In this general advance Colonel Lowell, 
. . . while charging at the head of his brigade, received a 
second wound, which proved to be mortal. Thus the service 
lost one of its most gallant and accomplished officers. He was 
the beau ideal of a cavalry commander, and his memory will 
never die in the command. . . . The cavalry advanced on 
both flanks, side by side with the infantry, charging the enemy's 
lines with an impetuosity which they could not stand. The 
rebel army was soon routed, and driven across Cedar Creek 
in confusion ; the cavalry, sweeping on both flanks, crossed 
Cedar Creek about the same time, charged, and broke the last 
line the enemy attempted to form (it was now after dark), and 
put out at full speed for their artillery and trains." 

General Wesley Merritt, Lowell's immediate commander, 
said in his report : — 

"No one in the field appreciated his worth more than his 
division commander. He was wounded painfully in the early 
part of the day, soon after which I met him ; he was suffering 
acutely from his wound, but to ask him to leave the field was 
to insult him almost. A more gallant soldier never buckled 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 481 

sabre. His coolness and judgment in the field were unequalled. 
An educated and accomplished gentleman, his modest, ami- 
able yet independent demeanour endeared him to all his supe- 
riors in rank. His inflexible justice, temperate yet unflinching 
conduct of discipline, made him respected and loved by his 
subordinates. He was upright as a man, pure as a patriot, 
and eminently free from the finesse of the politician. Young in 
years, he died too early for his country." 

Lastly, Brigadier-General Thomas C. Devin, who com- 
manded the Second Brigade of Merritt's Division, ends his 
report thus : — 

'* During the early part of the engagement at Cedar Creek, 
when all seemed lost, I did not see a single cavalry straggler, 
and the men stood up nobly under a most withering fire. 
When obliged to retire, the movement was effected in perfect 
order and new lines formed, as if on parade. 

** I respectfully trust that it may not be considered out of 
place here to mention the hearty and brave cooperation that was 
at all times extended to me by the brave and lamented Colo- 
nel Lowell, commanding the Reserve Brigade. In him the 
service lost an estimable gentleman and gallant soldier, whose 
future was bright with promise." 

It has been remarked of Lowell that, in each new place 
or kind of work to which his path of life led him, his new 
acquaintances believed that in him they had discovered a 
remarkable man, made for just that place. Yet all soon saw 
the performance of the work in hand was but a low power of 
a force dimly seen behind. 

Many years after the war. General Sheridan wrote the fol- 
lowing letter to his friend, Mr. John M. Forbes : — 



482 NOTES TO THE LETTERS 

Chicago, III., Dec. 31, 1881. 
My dear Mr. Forbes, — Your letter in reference to the 
late General Lowell is received. Among those who fell in 
my Shenandoah Valley Campaign there was no better soldier 
or brighter man than young Charles Lowell. Youthful in ap- 
pearance and only twenty-three [j/V] years of age,' he united 
the rare judgment and good eye of a leader to the unflinching 
courage which marked so many others. Commanding one of 
the best brigades of the army, comprised of three regiments 
of Regulars and his own, — the 2d Mass. Cavalry, raised by 
himself, — he was always found at the front in the advance. He 
had three horses killed under him in the first battle of Winchester 
(Opequan, Sept. 19, 1 864), and in the morning of Oct. 19th, 
Cedar Creek, same year, he was mortally wounded while holding 
an advance position with his brigade on the left of the retreat- 
ing army in the village of Middletown. On my arrival on the 
field, my first order was sent to Gen. Lowell through an aide-de- 
camp to hold the position he then occupied, if it was possible. 
His reply was that he would. And when the final charge was 
made by the whole line in the evening, he was Ufted on his 
horse, but could only whisper his last order for his men to mount 
and advance against the enemy. I watched him closely during 
the campaign and, had he survived that day at Cedar Creek, 
it was my intention to have more fully recognized his gallantry 
and genius by obtaining for him promotion in rank, and a com- 
mand which would have enlarged his usefulness and have given 
more scope to his remarkable abilities as a leader of men. 
I am, my dear Mr. Forbes, 

Sincerely and truly your friend, 

P. H. Sheridan, 

Lt. - General. 

' His age was twenty-nine. 



NOTES TO THE LETTERS 483 

Perhaps a fitting close is this extract from a letter written 
by Lieutenant-Colonel William H. Forbes, returning to his 
regiment after imprisonment in the South : — 

'* Oh, you don't know how I missed Colonel Lowell 
as soon as I rejoined the regiment ! Every time the bugles 
sounded in the morning, I half looked to see his light figure in 
the saddle leading the column ; and each night when, the 
day's hard marching done, we gathered round the camp fires, 
whose charm used to be doubled by his presence and conver- 
sation, and listened to the band playing the tunes we used to 
listen to with him, the choking feeling would come, and it 
always will with me, whenever I think of him. Every one 
else is a dead weight in comparison." 

Page j6j, note 2. These verses are taken from a poem 
written by Mr. George Lunt, on occasion of the death of 
a soldier earlier in the war, but read at Colonel Lowell's 
funeral. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Abert, Captain W. S., ay. 
Adams, Hon. Charles Francis, 194 ; 

426. 
Adams, Captain Charles Francis, Jr. , 

262 ; 472. 
Agassiz, Alexander, 82. 
Agassiz, Louis, Professor, 156. 
Ames Manufacturing Company, 13, 

88, 89; 385. 
Ames, Nathan P., 88; 385. 
Andrew, John A., Governor, 35, 

212, 235, 242, 246, 248, 263, 

264, 287, 304, 305, 306, 317; 

375, 403, 404, 417- 
Andrews, General George L., 292 ; 

434- 
ApoUonius of Tyana (quoted), 12. 
Argyle, Duke of, 426. 
Arlington, 209. 
Army Corps, Second, 462 ; Sixth, 

63 ; 455, 456, 457 ; Nineteenth, 

21, 63 ; 455, 
Ashburner, George, 186 j offer of, 

18, 398 ; letters to, 184; from 

J. M. Forbes, 398. 
Aspinwall, William H, 425. 
Atkinson, Edward, 414. 
"Atlantic Monthly" Magazine, 

149, 150. 
Augur, General C. C, 339 ; 451, 

455, 461. 
Austin, Samuel, 93 ; 386. 
Australian friends, 108, 109, I12. 
Averill, General William W., 464. 



Baldwin, Captain Josiah A., 348. 
Ball, Lieutenant J. Warren, tribute 

to Lowell, 376. 
Bancroft, John C, 80, 82, 118, 

119, 144, 182, 189, 190 ; 384; 

letters to, 132, 149, 163, 247. 
Banks, General N. P., 210, 211, 

213 ; 443-444- 

Baring Brothers, London, 425. 

Barlow, General Francis, 223 ; 408, 
461-463 ; letters to, 343. 

Bartol, Rev. Cyrus A., sermon on 
Lowell's death, 369. 

Bates, Joshua, 425. 

Battles and skirmishes : Aldie, 262 ; 
427. Antietam (Sharpsburg), 28, 
29, 224-226, 231 ; 409-412, 
421, 422, 462. Ball's Bluff, 5, 
29, 370. Berryville, 324. Bull 
Run, 217, 278. Cedar Creek, 
5, 48, 62-68 ; 376, 473-482- 
Cedar Mountain, 382, 383, 416. 
Chancellorsville, 32; 375, 424. 
Fredericksburg, 424. Fisher's 
Hill, 55 ; 464,465. Gainesville, 
231,232. Glendale (Fair Oaks), 
5, 221, 223, 275; 370, 407. 
Guerrillas, service against, 32, 35, 
38, 294-299, 311-313, 353 ; 
43*, 434-442, 446-455, 465- 
470. Gettysburg, 33, 272-279, 
285. Hanover Court House, 372. 
Halltown, 44, 45, 50, 322, 
325-329; 375,458,459- Har- 



488 



INDEX 



per's Ferry, 45, 49-53. Lee- 
town, 330; 460. Luray, 349, 
350. Malvern Hill, 224; 424. 
Opequon, 53, 55, 56,347-349 5 
463, 464. Pamunkey, 375. 
Rockville, 40, 321 ; 456. Shep- 
herdstown, 43. Slatersville, 27, 
372. South Anna, 26, 27 ; 373. 
South Mountain, 29; 421. 
Spottsylvania, 462. Staunton, 
465. Strasburg, 44, 45, 323, 
355 > 455. 456- Stuart's raid, 

■ 33, 267, 270. Summit Point, 
331, 332, 334. Tom's Brook, 
57, 61, 356; 470, 472. Vicks- 
burg, 275. Wagner, Fort, 36,37, 
284-290, 293-298, 304, 306 ; 
430, 431, 433, 442- Waynes- 
boro, 352 ; 465. Williamsburg, 
22, 23, 27; 371, 372. Win- 
chester, 324 (See Opequon). 
Yorktown, 371. Zion's Church, 
418, 45^-455- 

Beauregard, General P. G., 284, 

285, 305, 313- 
Blagden, Captain George, 345. 
Bonds, Government: 5— 2o's, 331, 

425 ; 7-30's, 331- 
Boyden, Uriah, 88 ; 385. 
Breckenridge, General John C, his 

corps, 349 ; 460, 464. 
Brigades (Lowell's), Provisional, 41, 

45, 322, et seq. Reserve, 54, 
. 337, 338; at Opequon, 56, 347, 

348; 463, 464; at Tom's 

Brook, 59, 60, 356 ; 470,471; 

at Cedar Creek, 63, 65 ; 4S0, 

482. 
Bright, John, 426. 
Brimmer, Martin, 414. 
Brindley, " The rugged," 79 ; 384. 
Bronze, 89. 



Brooks, John W., 292-293 ; 433, 

434- 
Brooks, Rev. Phillips (Bishop), 82. 
Brough, Governor, 333. 
Brownell, Henry Howard, 378 ; 

extract from poem by, 71. 
Buchanan, James, President of U. S. , 

152, 153, 192 ; 401- 

Buford, General John, 359. 
Burns, Anthony, sent back to slav- 
ery, 8, 16; 371. 
Burnside, General A. E.,422, 424. 

Cabot, James Elliot, 158. 
California Battalion, 30, 34, 236, 

290, 317; 415, 416, 446, 451. 
" California Hundred," 34, 290. 
Cameron, Simon, Secretary of War, 

21, 204, 209. 
Carlyle, Dr. John, translation of 

Dante, 394. 
Carper, Leo, 173, 177, 179 ; 396. 
Casey, General Silas, 240, 250 ; 

417- 
Chaffee, General Adna R., 404- 

406. 
Chase, Salmon P., Secretary of 

Treasury, 355 425. 
Chicopee, Mass., 13, 14; letters 

from, 78-93 ; Ames Manufec- 

turing Company's works at, 385. 
Child, Professor Francis J., 253 ; 

407, 419. 
Clapp, Captain Channing, 188, 
Cobden, Richard, 426. 
Concord, Mass., 79 ; 384. 
Cooper, Edward, 386. 
Cram, Captain G. C, 213. 
Crisis, Financial, of 1857, 146; 

390. 
Crocker, Captain Henry H., 53, 

54- 



INDEX 



489 



Crook, General George, 62 ; 464, 

465- 
Crowninshield, Colonel Caspar, 40, 

52, 330, 352; 376, 415,427, 

455, 456 j letter to, 262. 
Crowninshield, Captain Francis W., 

225 ; 409. 
Curtis, George William, 280, 313, 

331 ; 444, 460. 

Custer, General George A., 460, 
464, 470, 472. 

Dana, Richard H., Jr., 196 ; 371. 

Darien, Georgia, 36, 262-267 ; 
426. 

Davis, "Yankee," 447. 

Dennison, J. N., 399 ; letter to, 
191. 

Deserters, 31, 34, 237, 239 ; exe- 
cution of, 450, 451. 

Devin, General Thomas C. , 460, 

464, 470 ; quoted, 481. 
DeWolf, Oscar, Assistant Surgeon, 

40, 42, 51, 60, 61, 65, 66, 

243, 325, 345, 356 ; 463- 

Doubleday, General Abner, quoted, 

428. 
Douglas, Stephen A., Senator, 152, 

153, 188, 191. 
Draft Riots, 419. 
Duffie, General Alfred N., 459. 
Dwight, Lieutenant-Colonel Wilder, 

225 ; 409. 
Dwight, General William, 63. 

Early, General Jubal A., 40, 41, 
44, 54-56, 62, 330, 351 ; 455, 
457, 463, 473, 474 5 quoted, 

465, 472, 474- 

Eigenbrodt, Captain Charles F., 52, 

329. 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 15, 91, 



97, 99, 104, 126, 150, 173, 

281 ; 393,431- 
Emory, General William H., 21, 

62, 218, 222 ; 408. 
Endicott, William, 414. 
Erving, Langdon, 82. 

Fates; Fate, 3, 128 ; 13 I. 

Fillebrown, Lieutenant H. H., 262. 

Football, " Bloody Monday," 75, 
76; 381. 

Forbes, Mrs. Edith Emerson, 393. 

Forbes, John Murray, interest in 
Lowell, 17, 19, loi ; 386 ; 
Lowell's gratitude to, 121, 126 ; 
raises English loan for railroad, 
147 ; 390, 391 ; western plans 
for Lowell, 160, 164; procures 
offer of place in China for, 185, 
186; mentioned, 201, 211, 
forming Loyal Publication Society, 
Union Club, and Committee to 
recruit coloured regiments, 234, 
235; 412, 413-415; sends 60 
lbs. quinine to regiments, 243 ; 
his ceaseless unselfish work, 258- 
259 ; deplores Lowell's undesir- 
able task, 294, 295 ; his affec- 
tion for his son's charger, 326, 
348 ; his largeness of mind, 387 ; 
his account of the Peace Congress, 
400-402 ; his gifts of horses to 
Lowell, 411, 459 ; his account 
of Colonel Russell, 416, 417 ; 
his important private mission to 
England, 424-426 ; his praise 
of Francis G. Shaw, 433 ; of 
John W. Brooks, 433-434; 
of General Barlow, 461—462 ; 
General Sheridan's letter to, 483 ; 
Lowell's letters to : on declining 
place in India, 185; on political 



490 



INDEX 



situation, February, 1861, 193; on 
Maryland volunteers, 205 ; Mas- 
sachusetts interests at Washington, 
205, 208 ; Antietam and project 
for Second Massachusetts Cavalry, 
225, 229 ; on permanent cavalry 
camp at Readville, 287 ; on 
raising coloured troops ; J. W. 
Brooks, guerrilla warfare, 291, 
295 ; on protection of coloured 
troops, 296, 306 ; Cavalry Depot 
and Spencer carbines, 315, 3165 
exchange of prisoners, casualties 
to horses, 326; horses again, 
promotion unlikely. General Sher- 
idan, 338 ; possible release of 
Colonel Forbes, his horse, news- 
paper reputations, 362 ; his letter 
to Mr. Ashburner, 398. 

Forbes, Colonel William H., 46, 
163, 238, 274-275, 327, 339, 
345. 349. 362, 363 ; 391-394, 
415, 445. 452-455. 459. 483- 

Forbes, Miss Alice H., 363 ; letter 
to, 348. 

Fortune, 3, 15, 70; 390. 

Furness, Horace H., letter on Lowell 
in college, 5. 

Gansevoort, Colonel, 67. 
Genoa, 115, 116. 
Gibbs, Colonel Alfred, 337, 359. 
Gilmore, General Q. A., 305 ; 

433- 
Grant, General Ulysses S., 43, 44, 

57. 247, 3^2. 324, 354, 360, 

364 ; 424, 427, 457 ; President, 

462. 
Greeley, Horace, 188. 
Gregg, General David McM., 279, 

316; 429, 443. 
Grimes, James W. (Senator), 397. 



I Guerrillas (see also Partisan Rangers, 

I and Mosby, Colonel J. H.), 34, 

35, 38,39, 283, 294,295,298, 

^99. 312, 353, 354 J 434-442, 

446-455. 466-470. 

Gurowski, Count Adam, 202 ; 402. 

Hale, Rev. Edward Everett, 414. 
Halleck, General Henry W., 258, 

268, 269, 302, 307, 308, 

314; 428, 444; quoted, 448- 

449. 
Hallowell, Colonel Edward, 414. 
Hallowell, Colonel Norwood P., 

225, 234, 235; 409,414. 
Hallowell, Richard, 235. 
Hampton, General Wade, 270. 
Hancock, General Winfield S., 

462. 
Hardin, General Benjamin, 456. 
Hastings, Colonel Smith H., 376. 
Hasty Pudding Club, 6. 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 157. 
Heintzelman, General Samuel T., 

252, 268, 269, 270, 311 ; 428, 

443- 
Hewitt, Abram Stevens, 386. 
Higginson, Captain Francis Lee, 77, 

303, 304; 444- 
Higginson, Major Henry Lee, goes 
with Lowell to protest against re- 
turn of fugitive, 8 ; beginning 
business life, 9 1 ; a born merchant, 
143; travels with Lowell, 132, 
137, 138, 143, 144; Lieutenant 
in Second Massachusetts Infantry, 
210, 223 ; 382 ; Major First 
Massachusetts Cavalry, wounded, 
262, 264 ; approaching marriage, 
315; resignation from service, 
340; 371, 386; quoted, letter 
as to Lowell's philosophic habit, 



INDEX 



491 



378, 389 ; words at Soldiers' 
Field on Savage and Perkins, 382, 
383 ; letter on Perkins, 389 ; on 
Lowell's genius, 390; on James 
Lowell, 407 ; on Lowell and 
McClellan, 420-423 ; Lowell's 
letters to, from schoolhouse, 381 ; 
from Cambridge, 75 ; Chicopee, 
91, 93; Switzerland, 118, 119; 
Florence, 127, 129; Marseilles, 
146 ; Algiers, 153 ; Malta, 155; 
Rome, 156 ; Naushon, 163 ; 
Burlington, 178 ; Cambridge, 
188; Mt. Savage, 191 ; Wash- 
ington, 219; Readville, 231, 
234 ; Centreville, 302, 307, 
308 ; Vienna, Va., 314; Ripon, 
340. 

Higginson, Captain James J., 262. 

Hill, General A. P., 226. 

Hill, General D. H., 226 ; 423. 

Hoar, Judge E. R., 205, 209. 

Holmes, O. W. Jr., Captain, 225 ; 
409. 

Home, Lieutenant, 348. 

Hooker, General Joseph, 32, 33, 
224, 231, 258, 268, 269, 274; 
41 1, 424, 428. 

Horses, cavalry, consumption of, 
449. 

Humphreys, Rev. Charles A., 
chaplain, 38, 315, 363; 376, 
418, 454, 455 5 quoted, 377, 
445- 

Ideals, 10. 

Iron, 13, 19, 87, 93, 95, 191, 
196. 

Jackson, Judge Charles, 369. 
Jackson, Edward, 118; letter to, 
203. 



Jackson, Miss Ellen, 125; 369; 

letter to, 305. 
Jackson, Dr. James, 13 i; 369. 
Jackson, Patrick Tracy, 369. 
Jackson, Patrick Tracy, Jr., 121. 
Jackson, Mrs. Patrick Tracy, 130, 

141 ; 388. 
Jackson Family, 185; 369. 
Jackson, General Thomas J., 226. 
Jackson, General W. L., 43. 
Johnson, General Bradley F., 60 j 

470. 

Keenan, Major Peter, his charge, 

376. 
Kershaw, General, 463, 476, 477. 
King, General Rufus, 276 ; 432, 

440, 441, 442- 
Kinny, Lieutenant Charles W., 352. 

Lathrop, George P., poem quoted, 

6; 375- 
Lawrence, Amos A., 229, 230, 

234, 235 ; 412- 

Lee, General Fitzhugh, 324 ; 464, 
467. 

Lee, General Robert E., 32, 33, 
54, 226, 244, 253, 254, 261, 
271, 273, 276, 330; 411,422, 
428, 429; quoted, 468. 

Lee, Colonel Henry, 369, 403 ; 
letter to, 222. 

Lincoln, Abraham, President. See 
under Lowell, General C. R., 
opinions, expressions, etc. ; also in 
notes, 373, 401, 450, 461. 

Lomax, General, 60 ; 470, 47a. 

Longstreet, General James, 226, 

324; 474- 
Louis, Pierre Charles Alexandre, 

physician, 158 ; 391. 
Lowell, Miss Anna, 157, 164, 171, 



492 



INDEX 



212, 343 ; 403,413 ; letters to, 
105, 183. 

Lowell, Mrs. Anna Cabot (Jackson), 
5, 164, 184, 185, 187, Z75, 
310; letters to, from Chicopee, 
78, 86-91, 92, 93; Trenton; 
sailing for West Indies, 100 ; from 
New Orleans, loi— 103 ; Spain, 
103-115 ; Italy and Switzerland, 
1 1 5-1 40; Tyrol, Dresden, and 
Vienna, 141-145 ; Marseilles, 
Algiers, and Malta, 147-154; 
Rome and Paris, 1 57-1 61 ; Bur- 
lington, 169-190 ; Mt. Savage, 
192, 196, 197 ; Washington, 
203, 206, 209-212 ; New York, 
Pennsylvania, and Ohio, 213-217; 
Camp at Washington, 218-219 ; 
Peninsula, 201—204; Antietam, 
224; Boston, 233, 234 ; Camp, 
253,258,284; the Shenandoah, 
334, 364 ; quoted, as to her son's 
Oriental trait, 378 ; her book, 
Seed-grain, 125; 388 

Lowell, Charles Russell, Sr., 4, 
120, 121, 206, 212; letters to, 
122, 131, 220. 

Lowell, General Charles Russell, 
birth, ancestry, and heredity, 4 ; 
369; childhood, boyhood, schools, 

4, 5» 31; 369. 370, 371, 3815 
in college, 5-13, 82, 84; Com- 
mencement Oration, 7-1 3 ; shame 
at rendition of slave, 8, 16; in 
Boston counting-room, 13 ; at 
Chicopee manufacturing works, 

13, 14, 78-93, 99. 121; 371; 
ill health, 14, 15, 94, 104; ac- 
quaintance with J. M. Forbes, loi; 
trip to West Indies and New Or- 
leans, I00-I02; voyage to Europe, 
15, 102-104; travels in Spain, 



16, 105-115; Genoa, 115; on 

horseback in Alps, Savoy, Pied- 
mont, 116, 118, 122; Milan, 
122, 125; Venice, 124, 137, 
140; Florence, 127-130, 133, 
138; Rome, 131, 133, 137, 
157; horseback trip with friends 
through northern Italy and Tyrol 
to Dresden, 137-145; considers 
plans for China, 104, 120, 135; 
for Kansas, 16, 118, 122, 153; 
for Virginia, 17, 131, 132, 134- 
136 ; from Vienna to Marseilles, 
145-147 ; Algiers, 147-153 ; 
Tunis, Malta, 154, 155 ; Paris, 
1 5 8-1 6 1 ; return to United States, 
162-165; life in Burlington, 
Iowa, and railroad v.'ork, 17-19, 
165-191; accepts position at Mt. 
Savage Iron Works, Md. , 19, 
191 ; life in Border State, 191- 
197; outbreak of War, goes to 
Washington, 19, 20; applies for 
commission in U. S. Army, 201 ; 
acts as agent for Massachusetts, 
206, 209 ; 403 ; scouting in Vir- 
ginia, 209 ; commissioned Cap- 
tain, Sixth U. S. Cavalry, 21, 
210, 211, 213; recruiting service, 
213, 218; 404, 405; regiment 
assembled at Washington, 218— 
221 ; service with squadron in 
Peninsula, 21-27 ; 371-373 j 
Orderly's reminiscences of Cap- 
tain, 22-26 ; his brother mor- 
tally wounded, 26, 221, 223, 
224 ; 407 ; appointed on staff by 
General McClellan, 223 ; South 
Mountain and Antietam, 28-29, 
224-226; 373,410,411,421; 
declines command of a Massa- 
chusetts battalion, 29, 229, 230 ; 



INDEX 



493 



detailed as Colonel Second Massa- 
chusetts Cavalry, 30, 231; mutiny 
in Boston, 31, 246 ; 374 ; organ- 
izing and drilling at Readville, 
31 ; 414; engagement to Miss 
Shaw, 36 J First Battalion sent 
South, 236 ; 415 ; expecting Cali- 
fornia Battalion, 237 ; moves 
Second and Third Battalions to 
Washington, 32, 236, 240, 247 ; 
review by General Casey, 240 ; 
interview with Secretary Stanton, 
245 ; Camp Brightwood, 251- 

263 ; stationed along Potomac, 

264 ; ordered by General Hooker 
to Army of Potomac, recalled by 
General Halleck, 267-270 ; 428 ; 
letters on General Meade, Gettys- 
burg campaign, 271—2765 war- 
fare with Mosby and other guer- 
rillas, 34, 38, 276, 278, 283, 

294, ^95 ; 434-44^, 445-449 5 
Thirteenth and Sixteenth N. Y. 
Cavalry regiments added to his 
command, 37, 289; 432; court 
of inquiry as to loss of horses, 298, 
3 1 1 ; talk with Governor Andrew, 
304; with Secretary Stanton, 
305 ; retaliation for murder by 
Confederate, 312; writes to 
Mosby, 312; marriage, and house- 
keeping in camp, 39, 315 ; 445; 
drumhead court-martial, deserter 
shot, 450 ; in charge of cavalry 
depot, 38, 315; horse training, 
39 ; applies for Spencer carbines, 
317 ; returns to his command, its 
encounter with Mosby, 451, 455; 
aids in repelling Early's attack on 
Washington, 40, 321 ; 455,456; 
ordered to Shenandoah, 41 ; 457 ; 
commands "Provisional Brigade," 



41, 322; conduct in field, en- 
durance, soldiers' testimony, 39— 
42; praises Sheridan, 322, 336, 
339 ; advance to Strasburg, 323 ; 
protecting rear in retreat to Har- 
per's Ferry, constant fighting, 
44-54, 324-340; 45M60; 
given the " Reserve Brigade," 55, 

60, 337, 339; 460; his flag, 
346; battle of Opequon, 53, 55- 
57, 347-349 5 4^3 5 at Luray, 
Staunton, and Waynesboro', 349- 
352; battle of Tom's Brook, 57- 

61, 355, 356 ; 470, 472 ; march 
to Front Royal, 371, 474; ser- 
vice and mortal wound at Cedar 
Creek, 62-65; 37^, 475 5 com- 
missioned Brigadier-General, 68 ; 
death, 66-68 ; burial, courage, 
genius, standards, 68, 69, 70 ; 
tributes of Generals: Torbert, 479; 
Merritt, 480; Devin, 481 ; Sheri- 
dan, 482 ; Chaffee, 405. 

Lowell's Opinions, Thoughts, 
Expressions, and Reading : Action, 
12, 80, 120. Administration 
(Government; see also Lincoln, 
Buchanan, and Stanton) to be 
tested, 197; embarrassed, 203; 
course as to volunteers, 205 ; 
Lowell's loyalty to, 207 ; wants 
a policy, 212; must be strict with 
officers, 232 ; relation to McClel- 
lan, 255, 274; timid as to protect- 
ing negro soldiers, 297, 305, 306; 
bountiful provision for officers, 
309,310; lenient to traitors, 312; 
should confide in the people, 331; 
pressed for money, 341 ; Lowell 
a cautious and candid friend of, 
342-343 ; Affections, family, 
389; Ambition, 180, 338, 341, 



494 



INDEX 



342 ; Army, regular and volun- 
teer, 2.06—207 > 35 profession, 
202, 204, 207, 210, 211, 213, 
215, 219 J officers, tone of, 217, 
^3^1 234, 255. ^59. ^65, 271, 
274, 286, 290, 336; Art and 
Artists: Angelico, Fra, 128; 
Angelo, Michael, 128-180 ; 
Giorgione, 124, 161, 182, 189; 
Giotto, 128; Masaccio, 180; 
Murillo, 113; Perugino, 128; 
Raphael, 128, 180; Tintoretto, 
124, 128, 139; Titian, 125, i6i, 
190; Venus of Milo, 124,172; 
388 ; Gothic spirit, 129 ; Artil- 
lery, 202, 204, 209; Authors: 
Apollonius of Tyana, 12; Ar- 
nold, Matthew, 92; Bacon, 12, 
126, 310 ; Browne, Sir Thomas, 

90, 98 ; Buckle, 173; 396; 
Byron, 124; Bunyan, 171 ; 
Carlyle, 79, 80, 81, 84, 149, 173, 
264 ; Cato, 342 ; Cervantes, 109; 
Chapman, (Homer), 170; Chau- 
cer, 171 ; Coleridge, 82; Dante, 
172; Darwin, 396 ; Emerson, 15, 

91, 98, 104, 126, 150, 173, 
281 ; Fichte, 81 ; Fresnel, 130 ; 
Froude, 171 ; Goethe, 90, 126; 
Hawthorne, 157; Helps, 126; 
Herbert, 87, 94; 384; Homer, 
80; Humboldt, William, 126; 
Kant, 396; James, Henry, 91, 
92; Jameson, Mrs., 91; Milton, 
140; Niebuhr, 98, 120; Novalis, 
100; Pascal, 171 ; Peirce, Ben- 
jamin, 171 ; Raleigh, 180; Rich- 
ter, 90 ; Ruskin, 245 ; Schiller, 
91, 92, 98 ; Shakespeare, 98 ; 
Smith, Sydney, 126 ; Socrates, 
80; Spenser, 170; Swedenborg, 
172 ; Taylor, Henry, 126 ; Tho- 



reau, 83; Webster, Daniel, 194; 
Whewell, 92; Wordsworth, 83, 
98,256,282; Boston, idf,, i-jf), 
308 ; 400 ; Bushiu hackers, 283, 
353 (see Guerrillas) ; Cabot, y. 
Elliot, 158; Cambridge, 165; 
Castles in the Air, 11, 249, 277 ; 
Ca-valry, 220, 222, 230, 241, 
245, 257, 287, 294, 322 ; officers 
of, 279 ; Children, 342 ; Citizen- 
ship, 70, 259, 275, 341, 344; 
389; Clubs, So-S^; Comfort, 210, 
271 ; Compensation, 104; Con- 
science, 263, 264; Conscription, 
36, 263, 283, 333; Constitution, 
195, 196, 261 ; Con-versation, 
80, 83, 85 ; Cooking, 183 ; Corn 
•versus Cotton, 192, 193, 196; 
Corporations, 14, 87, 91 ; Cul- 
ture, self, 259; 389; Death, 
words and actions in presence of, 
42, 53, 66, 67, 255, 256, 357, 
358 ; 406 ; Directness, 70 ; Dogs, 
190; Duty in field, 250, 259, 
291 ; to army, 323, 354; Duties, 
convenient, 263 ; Earth, mother, 
139; Economy, 309, 310, 314, 
330. 332» 340> 357. 35^ j Eman- 
cipation, 136, 236, 314; Farm- 
ing, cooperative, 142; Fate, Fates, 
3, 128, 131 ; Fortune, 104, 105, 
159, 186; Michael Angelo's 
drawing of, 172, 180; Dante's 
description of, 172; 390; Go'vern- 
ment, see Administration ; Graz- 
ing, 342 ; Guerrillas (see General 
Index); Hea-ven, 255; Heroes, 
87; Horses, 116-118, 129, 137- 

139. 144, i5i> 153. ^°h 2I4» 
225, 236, 237, 238, 241, 260, 
316, 322, 325-327, 330, 332, 

334, 338, 347-349. 35^. 355. 



INDEX 



495 



356, 360, 362, 363 ; Ideals, 10, 
13; India, 187 j Indi-viduality, 
85, 244, 256, 296; Infantry, 
223 ; Iron-ivorking, 13, 19, 19I ; 
Lea'ves of absence, 354; Life, 
165, 170, 189, 244, 248, 253, 
259, 328, 351 ; Lincoln, Abra- 
ham, as candidate, 188, 19I1 
195; President; must act, 196; 
how much courage? 258; pro- 
clamations, 236, 272 ; his order, 
290 ; weak on protecting coloured 
troops, 297, 298, 301, 304, 306 ; 
hisappointment of Sheridan, 322; 
citizens and soldiers must work, 
to reelect, 333, 334, 337, 340, 
362 ; keeps down military ambi- 
tion, 341 ; only candidate to be 
thought of by patriots, 346 ; Love, 
244, ^45 ; Marriage, 187, 244, 
303, 307, 309, 310, 314, 315; 
Mathematics, 159, 160, 171, 
20 1 ; Mississippi Ri-ver, 1 69 ; 
Mosby, Colonel yohn S., 294, 
29s, 298, 299, 312, 313, 315, 
336; Lowell's reports, 441, 
446-448,452,453; Mountains, 
I23> ^33» '40» *77 ; ^^t'on, 
Nations, II, 196, 280, 281 ; 
Negro troops, 233-236, 242, 
246, 248, 260-267, 284-295 
passim, 303, 333 ; protection of, 
296-298, 304—306 ; Neivspapers 
and reporters, 70, 291, 363, 364 ; 
Old men, cannot teach young, 1 1 ; 
Oriental temptation, 184-187; 
mood, 378 ; Partisans (see Guer- 
illas) ; People, American, 232, 
2.34, 254, 266, 271, 280,331, 
344; Prayer, 256; Prisoners, 
exchangeof, 326, 356; Profanity, 
301 ; Profession, or occupation, 



choice of, 10, 12, 136, 142, 145, 
146, 156, 159, 160, 164, 177, 
181 ; Promotion, 229, 230, 294, 
338, 359;2?i2//roi2</i,western, 18 1 j 
Rank, insignia of, 43, 296 ; Rash- 
ness, 291 ; Reading, 94, 95, 99 
(see Authors) ; Recruiting, 21, 
32, 36, 50, 250, 308, 340; 
Religion, 70, 255, 256 ; Respon- 
sibility, 77, 131, 152, 184, 192- 
311 ; Retaliation, 290, 305, 3 1 1, 
312; Riches, i6o, 189, 331; 
Riding (see Horses); Roses -vs. 
Beets, 8 6 ; Southerners, 20 1 , 2 1 7, 
342 ; Theories, 341 ; Truth, 
many-sided, 296 ; indispensable in 
cavalry officers, 279 ; Thought, 
83; 377, 378; Victories, 226, 
254, 272-275, 280, 281 ; fVar, 
211, 253, 254, 260, 270, 271, 
274, 280,281,323; West, 165, 
174, 175, 182; White, Colonel, 
298; 441, 446; TVork, 7, 18, 
86, 87, 187, 189, 281 ; Working- 
men, 13, 14, 16, 19, 70; Wor- 
ship, 92, 256. 
Lowell, Miss Harriet, 134, 135, 

174. 

Lowell, James Russell, 5, 171, 201 ; 
391 ; lines from Commemoration 
Ode, xiii. 

Lowell, Lieutenant James Jackson, 
5,26, 142, 159, 164, 208, 217, 
221, 223, 224,275; 370, 373, 
407, 408 ; letter to, 204. 

Lowell, Mrs. Josephine Shaw (see 
also Miss Shaw), marriage and 
life in camp, 39, 314 ; help in 
hospital, 445 ; rides with her hus- 
band, 459 ; as " Commander-in- 
chief," 308 ; working shoulder- 
straps, 359. 



496 



INDEX 



Loyal Publication Society, New Eng- 
land, 234; 413, 414. 
Lunt, George, verses by, 365, 483. 

Magruder, Fort, Va., action at, 22; 
372. 

Mansfield, General, 28. 

Massachusetts, 194, 204,205, 208, 
298. 

McClellan, General George B., 26- 
30, 223, 225, 226, 255, 332- 
334, 346, 36254", 412, 419- 
424. 

McKendry, Captain Archibald, quo- 
ted, 376-377- 

McLemore, Marcus C, 102. 

Meade, General George G., 271, 

272, ^73, 274 5 429- 

Meader, Lieutenant Charles E., 329. 

Meigs, Lieutenant John R., mur- 
dered, 353; 465. 

Meleager, 3. 

Merritt, General Wesley, 45, 59, 
3^2, 359; 460, 464, 472; quoted, 
480-481. 

Miles, General Nelson A., 462. 

Morse, John T.,Jr. , Memoir of 
Henry Lee, quoted, 404. 

Mosby, Colonel John S., 34, 35, 
38, 294 — 299 passim, 312, 
313, 315, 336; 424,432,434, 

435, 437-442; 446-468 />aii:OT, 
with letters and reports on, from 
Generals Halleck, Grant, Sheri- 
dan, Lee, Rosser, and Stuart. His 
ff^ar Reminiscences, quoted, 435, 

436, 454- 

Napoleon, Louis, Emperor, 156. 
Naushon Island, 163, 164; 411. 
Newhall, Lieutenant-Colonel Fred- 
erick C, 57. 



Norton, Charles Eliot, 234, 235 ; 
414. 

Oelenschlager, Emil, Assistant Sur- 
geon, murdered, 469. 
Ohio, recruiting in, 214-216. 

Palfrey, General Francis Winthrop, 

221, 223, 224; 407; quoted, 

423. 
Partisan Life ivith Mosby, Scott, 

quoted, 437-439, 469- 
** Partisan Rangers " (see Guerrillas), 

law establishing, 435 ; partial 

abolishment of, 468. 
Patten, Major Henry L., 407. 
Peace Congress, 193 ; 400-402. 
Peirce, James Mills, Professor, 77; 

383 ; his life of General Lowell 

quoted, 37; 375, 399, 407, 410. 
Peninsular Campaign, 21-28, 221— 

224 ; 372-373, 406-408, 424. 
Pennington, Colonel Alexander C. 

M., 472. 
Perkins, Charles E. , President of C. 

B.&2R. R., 17,19,179, 331; 
395 , 459 5 'otters to, 176, 210, 
215,219,362; letter from, 395. 

Perkins, Edward N., 129. 

Perkins, Lieutenant Stephen George, 
76, 82, 129, 130, 137, 152, 
165, 188, 341 ; 382,383,389, 
390; letter to, 176; letter from, 

395- 

Perkins, Colonel Thomas Handa- 
syd, 369. 

Philadelphia, Union Club, 234 ; 
Philadelphia Volunteer Relief So- 
ciety, 239 ; Philadelphians, too 
comfortable, 271. 

Phillips, Captain John, 329. 

Pinkham, Lieutenant, 316. 



INDEX 



497 



Pleasanton, General Alfred, 316. 
Pond, George E., his Shenandoah 

Valley, quoted, 375 5 466, 476, 

477, 478. 
Pope, General John, 28, 232; 413, 

420. 
Porter, General Fitz John, 26, 232; 

412. 
Potter, William J., 121 ; his manly 

sermon and example concerning 

the draft, 299-301 ; 384, 442 ; 

letter to, 81. 
Poverty and riches, gifts of, 5. 
Putnam, George, letter to, 187. 
Putnam, Mrs. Mary Lowell, 148. 
Putnam, Lieutenant William Low- 

eU, 5, 217, 370, 

Railroads, Burlington & Missouri 
River, 17, 171, 176; 371, 395- 
397 ; Chicago, Burlington & 
Quincy, 19 ; Michigan Central, 
147 ; Virginia Central, 373 ; 
Orange and Alexandria, 276, 279; 
452 ; management of, in West, 
181. 

Read, John G. , Superintendent B. 
&M. R. R. R., 395, 396. 

Readville, camp at, 287 ; 414, 

415- 
Reed, Captain J. Sewall, 2905415, 

450, 451- 
Regiments. Ca-valry : First U. S., 
54; 461, 463; Second U. S., 
54; 461, 463 ; Third U. S., 
21 ; Fifth U. S., 54 ; 461, 463 ; 
Sixth U. S., 21-26, 213, 218- 
221, 222 ; 372, 373,405, 407, 
429 ; First Massachusetts, 229, 
242, 262, 308 ; 391, 420, 427, 
444 ; Second Massachusetts, 30- 
65 pasiim ,• recruiting, drill, and 



moving to Washington, 229-245 ; 
414-416, passim ; service along 
Potomac, 264, 267-273 ; against 
guerrillas, 276— 313 /"flii/'w," 418, 
428, 429, 432, 439-455 P^^- 
sim ,• defence of Washington, 
321 ; 455, 456 ; service in Shen- 
andoah in "Provisional Brigade," 
322-337; 456-460; in "Re- 
serve Brigade," 337-364 ; 460- 
481, passim; mutiny in Boston, 
374, 418 ; Fourth Massachusetts, 
451; Fifth Massachusetts, 417, 
427, 451 ; First New York Dra- 
goons, 339 ; Thirteenth New 
York, 37, 289, 298 ; 432, 441, 
447, 448, 453 ; Sixteenth New 
York, 289 ; 432 ; Twenty-Fifth 
New York, 50, 329 ; First 
Maryland, 50 ; Second Maryland, 
332 ; Eighth Pennsylvania, 376; 
— th West Virginia, 459 ; (Con- 
federate) Sixth Virginia, 50. 
Infantry : Second Massachusetts, 
219, 285, 287; 382, 383, 409, 
410, 416, 434 ; Twentieth Mas- 
sachusetts, 26, 224, 225 ; 370, 
407, 409, 427 ; Thirty-Fourth 
Massachusetts, 360; 473 ; Fifty- 
Fourth Massachusetts, 36, 37, 
233, *35, 246, 248, 284, 287, 
288, 289, 293, 298, 304, 305 ; 

414, 415, 426, 430-433 ; F'fty- 

Fifth Massachusetts, 409, 414. 

Artillery: Second U. S., Battery 

D. , 54 ; regiments, reputation of, 

364. 
Retaliation, 36, 290, 305, 311, 

312, 353; 427,428, 449, 457, 

458, 466, 468, 469, 470. 
Revere, Edward H. R., Assistant 

Surgeon, 225 ; 409. 



498 



INDEX 



Revere, Paul J., Major, 224; 409. 
Rhodes, General R. E., 324. 
Richards, Captain Thomas W. (?), 

454- 
Ricketts, General James T. , 62. 
Robbins, Private James (Orderly), 

237, 348 ; 372 ; his letter, 21- 

26, 48-51- 
Rodenbough, Colonel Theophilus 

F., 57; 460. 
Rogers, Henry B., 414. 
Rogers, Professor W. B , 414. 
Rosser, General Thomas L., 57, 58, 

60 ; 447, 470 ; quoted, 466-467. 
Rumery, Captain William L., 331. 
Russel, Captain Cabot J., 121, 

141. 304; 44=^, 444- 
Russel, William C, 298, 306. 
Russell, 'Colonel Henry S., 288 ; 

416, 417; letters to, 239, 243, 

250, 285, 288. 
Russell, Lord John, 426. 

Sanborn, Franklin Benjamin, 82, 

121 ; 383-384; letters to, 79. 
Sargent, Captain Lucius M. , 262 ; 

427. 
Savage, Lieutenant-Colonel James, 

77, 132, 210; 382, 416. 
Scott, Major John, his Partisan Life 

luith Mosby, quoted, 437-439, 

469, 470. 
Scott, General Winfield, 213, 215. 
Secession, 194, 195 ; 400. 
Sedgwick, General John, 28, 224 ; 

410. 
Sedgwick, Major William Dwight, 

225 ; 410. 
Seward, William H., Secretary of 

State, 188, 192, 197. 
Seymour, Horatio, Governor of New 

York, 278. 



Shaw, Francis G., 235, 289 ; 433. 

Shaw, Miss Josephine (see LoweU, 
Mrs. J. S.), engagement to Colo- 
nel Lowell, 36 ; writes of depar- 
ture of Fifty-Fourth Regiment 
from Boston, 242 ; quoted as to 
Colonel Shaw, 284 ; tells ot Major 
Higginson, 307 ; letters to, 236, 
237, 238, 240, 244, 248, 249, 
251-253, 255-257, 258-261, 
263, 264, 267-283, 285, 286, 
288-290, 294, 296-301, 304, 
310-313. 

Shaw, Colonel Robert G., 36, 37, 
225, 234, 235, 284-287, 288- 

290. 293. 304; 414, 415. 430» 
431. 433 ; letter to, 242. 

Shaw, Mrs. Sarah Blake (Sturgis), 
39. 285. 

Shenandoah Campaign, 41-68, 
322-365 ; 375, 376, 405, 406, 
457-483. 

Sheridan, General Philip H., given 
Middle Military Division, 43, 44 ; 
Grant's or Lincoln's wisdom in 
so doing, 322 ; setting things 
right, 322, 328 ; a restless mor- 
tal, 330, 335 ; Valley Campaign, 
44-64 ; watches Lowell's charge, 
49; Lowell's praise of, 336, 
339 ; Grant's visit to, 55 ; Sher- 
idan's immediate action, 463 ; 
ordered to waste Valley, 57 ; 457, 
458 ; attacks Early at Opequon, 
55 ; orders fight at Tom's Brook, 
58 j must fight at Cedar Creek, 
62, 64 ; saves the day there, 62, 
64 ; 475-479 ; his praise of Low- 
ell, 67, 70 ; 479, 482. 

Slocum, General Henry W., 267, 
268; 428. 

Smalley, George W., 280; 429. 



INDEX 



499 



Soldiers, European, 123, 145. 
Spaniards, ill, 115. 
Spencer carbines, 316; 455. 
Stanton, Edwin M., Secretary of 
War, 35, 36, 245, 250, 258, 

^97, 298, 300. 30i» 305. 306 ; 

418, 451. 
Stearns, Major George L., 414. 
Stevens, Fort, D. C, 251. 
StiUman, William J., 88,89; 3^5- 
Stone, Lincoln Ripley, Assistant 

Surgeon, 243; 418. 
Stoneman, General George, 22, 25, 

26, 236, 242, 299, 311 ; 371- 

372, 407, 449- 
Stuart, General J. E. B., 33, 268, 

2705 371, 428; quoted, 437. 
Sumner, Charles, Senator, 211, 260, 

261 ; letter to, 201, 292. 

Tappan, Mrs. Caroline Sturgis, 1 24, 
130, 133. 

Tax laws, South Carolina, 193. 

Thayer, James Bradley, Professor, 
414 ; quoted, 392. 

Thompson, Lieutenant Edward, 40, 
53, 348. 

Thompson, Major DeWitt C, 415, 
450. 

ToUes, Lieutenant - Colonel Corne- 
lius W., murdered, 469. 

Torbert, General Alfred T. A., 44, 
58, 316, 324; 458, 459, 460, 



464, 465, 470; quoted, 479- 
480. 
Tucker, Lieutenant Samuel F., 355. 

Union Club, Boston, 234, 412. 

Wakefield, Sergeant, 355, 356. 
Walker, General Francis A., his 

account of General Barlow, 

462. 
Walker, Rev. James, 68. 
Ward, Samuel Gray, 121, 234; 

414. 
Warner, Colonel, 456. 
Welles, Gideon, Secretary of Navy, 

35; 4^5- 
Wells, Colonel George D., 360; 

473- 
White, Major, 312; 441, 442, 

447- 
Whiting, Hon. William, Solicitor 

War Department, letter to, 265. 
Wickham, General W. S., 465, 

466. 
Williams, Major Lawrence, 23 ; 

372, 373, 407. 
Wilson, Henry, Senator, 211. 
Wilson, General James H., 324; 

465. 
Woodman, Lieutenant Henry F., 

352- 
Wright, General Horatio G., 62; 

456, 457, 464, 474, 475- 



(3Cbe iRitoerjsibc j^re?? 

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A 



APR \2 1907 



